“That’s catastrophic, and it’s a sad state of affairs not only for Philadelphia, but for the country in general,” said a man in town from Montana to drop off his daughter at Temple University.
A line of tourists cued up outside the Liberty Bell Center to glimpse one of Philadelphia’s most iconic treasures. Nearby, a cluster of visitors encircled a guide who pointed across Chestnut Street and proudly proclaimed, “All the government offices in charge of Philadelphia in the 1790s, they all operated right here.” One after another, tourists stopped to take selfies in front of Independence Hall.
In an email on Sunday, Charlotte Merrick, a spokesperson for the City of Philadelphia, described the shooting as a “road-rage incident.” The shooting came just hours after a 39-year-old man was shot to death and two others were critically wounded late Saturday afternoon in. The first shooting, just before 5 p.m., occurred on the 700 block of East Madison Street, not far from the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues in an area of the city that has experienced more gun violence than any other section of Philadelphia.
Jamir Gates, 39, said he was standing outside Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia working as a parking valet at the corner of Fifth and Chestnut when he heard gunshots. Moments earlier, Gates said he saw a group of motorcycle riders whom he regularly sees cruise around the area on Saturday evenings. He said he believes one of the motorcycle riders got in an argument with a driver of a car.
“Everybody dispersed and ran into the hotel and ran all kinds of ways,” said Gates, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia but grew up in Chester city. “Sadly I didn’t run because I’m sort of desensitized to it. If you grew up in a certain environment, you hear gunshots all the time, and it’s sad because I should have been in a panic and ran. I’m just so used to hearing it.”
Monaco hotel guest Tim Allard said he and his wife were in their room when they heard “eight or nine shots.” They looked out the window and saw a man on the ground next to a motorcycle turned on its side. The couple, who live in Montana, were in Philadelphia to drop their 18-year-old daughter off at Temple University, where she is a freshman studying architecture. She was on Temple’s campus at the time, he said.
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