PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A 7-year-old child playing with a toy on the front porch of a west Philadelphia house was shot in the head after gunfire broke out on the block, authorities said.
The boy was taken to a hospital and then to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was listed in critical condition after the 7:40 p.m. Saturday shooting, police said.
Police said an arrest was made but no weapon was recovered.
The city’s police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw, said she and other officials were “heartbroken by the tragedy.” She said “it is our collective responsibility - police, and community - to ensure that our children are safe and well-protected.”
Shortly before 3:30 a.m. Sunday, police called to a northeast Pennsylvania area found “large puddles of blood” and located four women who had been shot. A fifth woman being treated at a hospital for stab wounds said she was wounded during the same Upper Kensington incident. Police report no arrests and the motive is unknown.
On Friday night, a 32-year-old woman was killed and three men in their 20s were wounded in a shooting north of the center of the city. An hour earlier in north Philadelphia, a 32-year-old man died after he was found shot in a vehicle.
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