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At least six people were injured Thursday night (December 30) after two gunmen opened fire in a Philadelphia neighborhood.
According to reports, police responded to multiple calls around 11:30 p.m. about gunshots in the Germantown section of the city. When police arrived on the scene, they found a semi-conscious 21-year-old woman with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach.
Philadelphia Police Department Chief Inspector Scott Small confirmed the woman was taken to the hospital and listed in critical condition.
Law enforcement officers say the mass shooting was carried out by two gunmen and that at least 65 bullets were fired from two different semi-automatic caliber weapons. As of Friday (December 31), the gunmen remain on the loose.
"The crime scene is very extensive," Small said. "We found over 65 shell casings. That's a lot of shots."
Five men ranging in age from 19 to 29 later arrived to nearby hospitals with gunshot wounds stemming from the incident, police confirmed.
Small said they believe the woman may have been the intended target "due to the fact that she was hit so many times," but because of the size of the crime scene and so many shell casings, it's still hard to tell.
Data collected by the city shows an increase in the number of nonfatal gunshot victims in 2021 –– rising to 1,827 more than 600 from pre-pandemic numbers in 2019.
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