More information is available on the recent shootings near 52nd and Spruce where two young men were shot and hospitalized.
On Thursday, Sept. 24, a 24-year-old man was shot in the upper left thigh in a shootout on the 5200 block of Irving Street, according to police. The shooting was reported shortly after 9 p.m. Multiple shots were fired in what police believe was an exchange of gunfire between two suspects, black males in early 20’s, who opened fire on the block and another unidentified person, who was shooting back at them. Twenty-two various caliber shell casings were found on the block, and two vehicles parked on the block were struck by stray bullets, according to a police report. The victim was taken to Presbyterian Hospital where he was listed in critical but stable condition.
The second shooting took place on the same block less than 24 hours later – on Friday, around 1:15 p.m. A 19-year-old man was shot in the buttocks and was taken to Presbyterian Hospital where he was listed in stable condition, according to police. Police say that two young males approached the victim on the 5200 block of Irving St. and opened fire wounding him. After processing the scene, police determined that at least two firearms were used to return gunfire toward the suspects.
UPDATE (9/30/2015): Police released surveillance video of the daytime shooting and are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying and locating the suspects:
If you have any information about the shooting or these suspects, please contact Southwest Detective Division, 215-686-3183/3184.
September 28th, 2015 at 7:49 am
I live on the 5200 Block of Addison. I heard the gunfire. This is the first time I had ever heard gunfire. At first I thought it was fire crackers but it was too rapid and too many pops at once. Then I saw the police vehicles and my street blocked by yellow tape. This was too close for comfort. You read about this things in the news or hear about them on TV or radio news but I have never experienced this in my 63 years and my 60 years of living on Addison Street. This is very disturbing.
September 28th, 2015 at 10:46 am
Random acts of violence occur against “victims”. These are not “victims” they are the “wounded” as they were clearly involved in the shootings.
September 28th, 2015 at 7:28 pm
Returning fire doesn’t make you less of a victim necessarily. The point is there were 2 exchanges of gunfire on 52nd & Spruce within 24 hours of one another, but thanks for clarifying the difference between two words…
September 29th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
I would go over this girl house on Irving st .
September 30th, 2015 at 10:46 am
Why are these incompetents walking around with guns?
Im glad someone responded to my post about “victims” because it really upsets me that these animals are costing the taxpayers through police overtime, and then hospital work. It is clear to me that these are not random acts of violence. The so called “victim” infact knows who the other shooters are. But there is a code of silence on the streets. (something left over from some ice cube movie from the 80s.) This code of silence is why you hear the police reports that say “someone drove up in a car and asked me the time, then they started shooting at me, and I ran away.” And it is this code of silence why I have to constantly look over my shoulder when I come and go into my own neighborhood.
Thank you for acknowledging the hypocrisy.
These kids who were shooting at eachother (and got shot, and put in the hospital) are going to be released without recourse. The cops wont do anything.
September 30th, 2015 at 11:58 am
west philly citizen, I think you think you know a lot more about this than you actually do. whenever someone gets hurt due to gun violence, its a tragedy regardless. and I think you think a little too highly of yourself, why are you so scared, you’re not the one thats gonna be a victim of the violence going on in the neighborhood. what makes you so special that you feel entitled to live in a crime-free, violence-free neighborhood. Instead of feeling so sorry for yourself, why don’t you feel some compassion and realize, omg i can’t believe ppl live in these situations, especially children. The real tragedy is that there are kids that have to live in these circumstances, circumstances that clearly scare adult men. thats the real tragedy. Appreciate the fact that you probably have the opportunity to move out of west philly if you really had to, not everyone does. and instead of focusing on the negatives in ur neighborhood, why don’t you focus on the positives, try to cultivate that, develop some community and really work towards making a difference instead of locking urself in ur house and complaining on the internet cause you’re scared of the scary teenagers that talk by ur house.
September 30th, 2015 at 12:10 pm
When people shoot at each other, bullets miss and put everyone in the area at risk – people in their homes minding their own business. Whatever dispute or circumstance of the people shooting guns there is grave risk to others having nothing to do with that. Yes, yes, yes…people shooting guns in a high density area over turf, drugs, gangs (who knows, not my business) prosecute them aggressively, just like you would for somebody driving blind drunk on the wrong side of the road at 100 mph. It’s reckless endangerment of other people and there should be no tolerance.
September 30th, 2015 at 1:31 pm
Agreed. Just trying to direct the conversation away from the tired conversations that typically these kind of posts devolve to. Gun violence is sad on all levels, whether or not we are talking about the “victims” or the “wounded”. and the reality is this is happening all across the city, and I think the problem IS “people in their homes minding their own business” until it happens too close to home. we treat it as not our problem until it is, rather than seeing all of this as a symptom of what is wrong on a bigger scale. I don’t think getting outraged over one shooting, or calling for more aggressive prosecution is gonna solve a single thing.
and the difference between drunk driving and gun violence, is one has an overwhelming impact on a particular type of community. the similarity is that both can be handled on a public policy and social level. but yea, y’all keep talking about how we need to get rid of all these animals from our city and see how much progress you’re actually making.
September 30th, 2015 at 3:26 pm
Drew:
I hear you and respect that. I also have no interest in tired conversations. I don’t wish to judge people’s character. I’m also not speaking out of concern for my personal safety. I believe in the maxim of the soft bigotry (racism) of low expectations. Some kids will steal bikes, some young adults will shoot guns, so some people will lose their bikes and some people will get shot. While I agree that there are reasons related to economic inequality and racism and history leading us to where we are right now, I don’t think that it is a good idea for the people and authorities to do nothing when children are caught stealing bikes or young adults lose gunfights on the street. I think that this makes problems worse. Which is by no means to say we shouldn’t also work on solving root causes of these problems.
September 30th, 2015 at 5:17 pm
I really wish that West Philly Local would post the relevant times and dates of community meetings and police district meetings when stuff like this happens. There is definitely an issue around that area of Irving Street. I live adjacent to it and hear noise and disturbances all the time. I’m sure these shooters are well known to the police. This is recent activity, though so the rest of us would love to know what’s going on to protect ourselves and our kids. That would be much more helpful than just reporting every shooting.
September 30th, 2015 at 6:09 pm
Terrible for everyone, particularly the kids who have had the bad luck to grow up with this, and with a culture of “stop the snitching” where people are intimidated by criminals and don’t go to with police.
There is a problem in this city with uneducated, poor young black men using guns. I don’t know how to solve it immediately. Let’s not pretend it is Asian, disabled women with PhDs. Let’s also not pretend that we should expect all poor uneducated people to behave like this – criminally and with wanton negligence. Understanding that it sucks to be poor, uneducated and black in this city doesn’t excuse the behavior.
In the meantime, police meetings typically happen either on the second or third meeting Calvary Center at 48th & Baltimore Avenue.
September 30th, 2015 at 6:12 pm
Corey:
Absolutely, I’m not saying we shouldn’t lock these guys up for a long long time (especially after seeing that video, these guys shouldn’t be allowed back near any form of normal civilization for any period of time). I just don’t like how ppl act like these community level issues are somehow gonna be solved by just being more aggressive against crime. Whether it’s soft bigotry, economic inequity, or just turning a blind eye to the issues facing some communities in our city, I think if we treat any group to a different standard, psychologically, that stuff runs real deep and has real tangible physical impacts. I think west philly local is an amazing community resource, but the issues surrounding gentrification, and the increasing marginalization of the more vulnerable populations is not some made up academic mumbo jumbo. It takes real hard work on everybody’s part to make sure that you aren’t neglecting even the smallest minority in ur community. And I think there are ways we can be more proactive about this. Instead everyone’s so scared to talk about this stuff, that the comments sections are always filled with opinionated, frankly veiled racism that doesn’t do anything but further alienate different communities. Let’s just all get along, realize that one shooting isn’t the end of the world, come to the realization that, wow that really sucked and I can’t believe there are ppl that go through this all the time and don’t have the resources to do anything about it, that makes me sad and angry, what can I do to not only make sure my community is safe, but also so no other community in our city has to deal with that sort of crime.
September 30th, 2015 at 6:14 pm
I agree with you, wild wild west. I went to the PDAC meeting that was scheduled for last night at 5:30 pm at 55th & pine and nobody was there. I spoke with one of the officer’s. He was very helpful and we spoke about the Irving Street shootings in particular. There are some good folks out there.
I plan on going to the Captain’s Town Hall meeting on October 15th to try and voice my concerns.
September 30th, 2015 at 6:32 pm
the real issue here is why are security cameras such crap? they really couldn’t use that in court could they?
September 30th, 2015 at 9:14 pm
There is a 6 p.m. community meeting on the third Thursday of every month at the Calvary Center at 48th and Baltimore with the police. It is usually pretty well attended depending on what’s going on.
September 30th, 2015 at 10:32 pm
“Professional leg shooters”
October 2nd, 2015 at 9:06 am
Thanks for the info. But again, I call on the folks who own this blog to permanently boost or link to relevant community meetings. The crime blotter is not particularly helpful unless it’s just to register crime stats and generate semi-racist posts and veiled threats of retaliatory action. We live in the community and are aware of an uptick in violent crime. The more of us who are involved in trying to find ways to combat it rather than shaking our heads over it, the better.
October 2nd, 2015 at 9:24 am
@ WildWildWest
Good idea. In the future on these types of stories we will post information on related community meetings.
We have posted on crime-related community meetings – https://www.westphillylocal.com//?s=police+meeting&x=0&y=0 – but we will do more.
I would disagree crime updates are not helpful. Often people want an explanation, if possible, of the gunshots they heard or the reason police were on their block. We get e-mails and tweets all the time asking these kinds of questions.
Mike Lyons, editor
October 2nd, 2015 at 11:58 am
Hi Mike thank you for responding. I totally get it – I heard shots in one of these instances and wondered what was going on. But to keep reporting crime without an avenue to become more knowledgeable about patterns or to help combat it is ultimately fruitless. We do appreciate the updates but coupled with more info may help with prevention. I don’t know how much advocacy is a part of what you do, but if you have a reporter who could either cover meetings or maybe find out from police why has has been a noticeable uptick in an area not known for it – as one longtime resident noted above, that would also be great. Thanks for being open to the suggestions.
October 2nd, 2015 at 3:47 pm
So, now that we are all finished giving our dissertations on whether or not relevant crime news should be reported, especially in a local paper that is read by local people from the neighborhood, and being that neither philly.com nor the 18th district reports this news, and there is a clear concern among readers, I get the feeling there is a consensus that it is thanks to the good reporting of WPL the word is getting out. Thank you.
So, can I ask what happened with the children who are running around with the guns acting like Boyz n da Hood? And, has the police had an opportunity to address the public?
Again, I went to the scheduled community meeting and the only other person who showed up was the owner of the bodega on 52nd and Spruce. He and I are now in touch, before I only knew him only as the guy who sells me milk. He too is concerned about these criminals running around, not only causing lost revenue, but also threatening his and his family’s safety and well being. And I agree with his concerns.
Glad we are getting the word out there. Some friends of mine who are also concerned about these shootings are planning a community task brigade of concerned residents and we plan on meeting somewhere around 52nd and Walnut. I will continue to post to this blog and will let anyone who is interested know about the scheduled meeting.
October 2nd, 2015 at 6:29 pm
Eh, u and ur milk selling Bodega man keep up the good work,and keep being scared of the scary teenagers in ur neighborhood. There’s plenty of ways to do good in ur community, that don’t involve going to meetings and talking about how other ppl aren’t doing their job making sure you feel safe. But yea, best option is definitely just to lock all the boys up and wait til all of them get priced outta ur neighborhood. Then at least you’ll be safe, and none of these problems will be affected you.
October 9th, 2015 at 4:27 pm
Drew,
Your comments are unhelpful (and barely coherent). People are expressing legitimate concerns about safety in their neighborhood and sharing a desire to work together as a community to improve things. Why that antagonizes you so much is beyond me.
October 24th, 2022 at 6:08 pm
I am So Heartbroken and totally sick!! My Sister was that 33yr old woman who was murdered on Irving St. The city officials and the detectives aren’t doing a damn thing about serving justice for My Sister!!They know who killed My Sister and have yet to bring him to Philadelphia to prosecute him!! Yet he is sitting in Maryland fighting a robbery case,claiming to be bi-polar??? Are they serious??!! I would think that Murder would trump robbery in any court!! We Need Justice!! We Need Peace!!