At least 6 people shot, 1 man killed in Philadelphia’s Fern Rock neighborhood

Updated: 6:20 p.m.

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At least six people were shot in the Fern Rock neighborhood of North Philadelphia near Broad Street and Chew Avenue on Monday afternoon.

The School District of Philadelphia confirmed two schools, Central High School and Philadelphia High School for Girls, were on lockdown, according to spokesperson Monica Lewis. No one from the schools is believed to be involved.

A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson declined to confirm any details of the shooting, saying it is still awaiting more information.

According to 6ABC, police said an unidentified suspect drove by and opened fire on a group of people around 2:30 p.m.

Five Black men and one Black woman, all between the ages of 19 and 28, were struck, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. All are in stable condition, except for a 26-year-old man who was shot multiple times in the chest. Police said he was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:55 p.m. Police have not made any arrests.

“It’s a busy area. Thank God the children were not out when the shooting occurred,” Deputy Police Commissioner Joe Dales told 6ABC.

The mass shooting happened not far from Olney Transportation Center where eight people ages 17 to 71 were shot in a previous mass shooting in February.

Councilmember Cindy Bass decried the city’s response to the rise in deadly shootings, and asked for more police, and SEPTA police presence, to make the area safer — not more hearings in City Council.

“It keeps happening, over and over and over again,” she said. “Put the resources where we know we need them. We know this is a hotspot. Put the resources here.”

Leonard Marshall, owner of MomMom’s Kiddie College, a child care facility at the corner of Broad and Chew, locked down his business during naptime, when the shooting occurred.

“We woke them up to get them to safety,” he said.

Marshall hopes that the shooting will lead to some sort of turning point, to “safety throughout any neighborhood … [for] collectively, everyone [to] be at peace with each other. Stop shooting.”

As of Sunday, nearly 1,597 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year, according to PPD’s weekly major crimes reports. Of the 367 homicides recorded so far this year, the vast majority were shooting deaths.

This is the 16th mass shooting incident in Philadelphia this year in which at least four people were shot, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

Find a list of resources for people affected by gun violence here.

WHYY’s Tom MacDonald and Avi Wolfman-Arent contributed reporting.