South Philadelphia shooting marks city’s 500th homicide

This story originally appeared on 6abc.

Philadelphia police are investigating a shooting that left a woman dead on Wednesday night.

It happened around 4:30 p.m. near 7th and Jackson streets in South Philadelphia.

Police say the 55-year-old woman was shot three times in the chest. She was rushed to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The woman’s killing marks the city’s 500th homicide this year. The grim milestone ties the record of the largest number of murders in one year, which was set back in 1990.

On Wednesday morning, Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw were joined by federal, state and local officials at City Hall to address the violence.

“It’s terrible to every morning to get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy and this needs to stop,” Kenney said.

Kenney said that reducing the violence is his administration’s top priority.

He also called on lawmakers in Harrisburg to allow the city to pass more restrictive gun laws to keep weapons off the streets.

“There are people making money selling these guns, making these guns, and the legislature, not the people behind me, don’t care. They don’t care how many people get killed. It’s ridiculous. And cities like Boston and New York that are not dealing with this problem the way we’re dealing with it, there are strict gun laws…we need to have some semblance of that. I’m not talking about people hunting deer,” said Kenney.