There were fourteen people shot, three of whom died as of Sunday afternoon, in what is being called a “mass shooting” by just about everybody, and The Philadelphia Inquirer was kind enough to give us their definition:
The Inquirer defines a mass shooting as one that occurs in public and kills three or more people. Definitions of mass shooting vary, with no single consensus. The FBI has classified mass murder as four or more deaths in a single incident; Congress has used the definition of three or more.
The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks mass shootings, defines them as any incident in which four or more people are injured or killed, a classification some national media outlets also use.
But “mass shooting” invokes images of the Uvalde or Parkland or Sandy Hook school massacres, especially with Uvalde and the Buffalo shootings fresh in people’s minds.
However this was not some kook with an AR-15 who set up and planned to kill a bunch of people. No, this was a gun battle between at least two groups “beefin'” with each other. To the right is a screen capture from the Inquirer taken at 4:20 PM EDT, one which happened to occur in a large crowd, and in which innocent bystanders were wounded and killed.
Commissioner Danielle Outlaw on Sunday called Saturday’s mass shooting on South Street an “atrocity,” and police said at least five guns were fired in the incident as dozens of people tried to flee or navigate chaos that spanned several blocks.
At least one of the slain was an innocent bystander: Kris Minners, 22, a second-grade boys’ resident adviser at Girard College, a well-known Philadelphia boarding school, died from his injuries at Jefferson Hospital.
Officials said the investigation into the incident remained in its early stages, and several questions remained unclear. Police officials said no one had been taken into custody, and investigators were still seeking to piece together video, ballistics, and other evidence.
Outlaw said officers assigned to the 200 block of South Street heard gunshots on the 400 block around 11:31 p.m. When the officers arrived, Outlaw said, they saw several people with gunshot wounds and began giving first aid.
One of the officers then noticed a man on the 200 block, near an intersection with American Street, firing into a crowd, Outlaw said. The officer fired several shots, some of which Outlaw said likely hit the suspected shooter, but the man ran away.
Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said all of that likely came after a fight on the 200 block of South Street. Police believe that brawl, which began as a fistfight, may have been the incident that initiated much of the gunfire. As the fight progressed, two men pulled guns and shot each other, police said. One of the men died.
In the aftermath, Vanore said, another three guns were fired along South Street across several blocks. The officer also shot at the man near American Street.
Well, it’s good that at least one of the dead was one of the instigators!
Video shows gun drawn before fistfight erupted between men on South Street
by Max Marin and Aubrey Whelan | Sunday, June 5, 2022
Cell phone footage circulating online, and corroborated by The Inquirer, shows a fistfight that led to gunfire on South Street on Saturday night.
In one video, two men appear to exchange words with a third man in front of Rita’s Water Ice between Second and Third Streets. The two men then slowly descend on the third — one of them drawing what appears to be a handgun as they advance. A fistfight ensues.
People standing nearby begin to panic when they observe the drawn handgun. “They about to shoot!” a woman said.
The men trade blows and wrestle with each other for less than 15 seconds, moving into the middle of South Street, when a volley of gunshots rings out, at which point the video cuts away. The footage conforms with another video of the events viewed by The Inquirer.
More than two dozen gunshots ring out in quick succession.
A trail of blood snaked along the sidewalk outside Rita’s after the shooting. On Sunday morning, the police chalk outlines for more than a dozen shell casings were still visible on the nearby sidewalks.
In a separate video posted online, which occurs sometime after the shooting ended, a group of women is seen huddled above a bleeding woman who lies in the southside crosswalk of Third and South — the same spot a nearby bar owner told The Inquirer he saw a woman collapse last night.
Blood had stained the white striping of the same crosswalk when a reporter arrived on scene around 1 a.m.
Of course, the Inquirer, which said it “corroborated”, was quickly made public, and Steve Keeley of Fox 29 News tweeted it:
“They both strappin’. Hey they about to shoot!” @PhillyPolice investigating whether this was start of mass shooting. Two males walk past Rita’s store at 239 South Street & appear to have guns in their hands&fight man ahead of them, then shooting starts @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/JEuwR2LTha
— Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) June 5, 2022
Naturally, the Inquirer didn’t want to tell readers that it was two black men appear to exchange words with a third black man.
Of course a race-baiter styling herself PJ had this to say:
#WhiteSupremacist attacked downtown #Philadelphia last night.
Over 14 people shot, by a fully automatic #AR15 machine gun.
Yet this is normalized in #america thanks to the GOP and NRA. Time to abolish and confiscate! #GetOutTheVote
I regret that I sometimes take too seriously an account that simply has to be a parody, because no one could really be that stupid.
But what is that stupid are all of the Democratic politicians crying out for gun control, when it’s obvious that no gun control measures would have stopped this. At least one of the guns recovered had an ‘extended magazine,’ which is illegal. Eventually we’ll find out that none of the weapons was legally possessed by any of the gang-bangers who started shooting up South Street. But that doesn’t matter to the gun grabbers who want to disarm all law-abiding people, thinking that will somehow disarm the criminals. George Soros’ stooge District Attorney, Larry Krasner, tweeted:
The terrible crimes last night on South Street tell our Pennsylvania legislators it’s time for real action. Boycott NRA lobbyists, boycott NRA donations, and bring real common sense gun regulation to Pennsylvania. Now.
We remember, of course, how the distinguished Mr Krasner, who could have has Hasan Elliot locked up on a parole violation, who could have had him behind bars, just let him go, and Mr Elliot then killed Philadelphia Police Corporal James O’Connor IV. Mr Krasner has Corporal O’Connor’s blood on his hands!
The left won’t want to let this ‘crisis’ go to waste, but it’s always the same thing: their response to criminals is to assail the rights of law-abiding people.
