Philadelphia officers fired upon second night in row

PHILADELPHIA – For a second night in a row, Philadelphia police officers came under fire, although this time no one was injured.

Officers patrolling a central city district packed with restaurants, shops and clubs shortly before midnight Saturday said they detected a strong odor of marijuana from a passing group. When they called out to the group, a man fled.

Officers pursued him to a nearby street, where authorities say he opened fire, discharging at least three shots. The officers didn’t return fire.

The 19-year-old suspect later was found hiding behind a building and was taken into custody. He was taken to a hospital “for treatment for a severe sprain to his right ankle that was the result of jumping over fences of the rear yards of homes,” police said.

The shooting came almost exactly 24 hours after a police sergeant was shot and wounded in her car in west Philadelphia and a University of Pennsylvania police officer and four other people were shot and wounded before the gunman was killed. A 25-year-old woman among those shot later died.

In other violence around the city, a 22-year-old man was critically injured when he was shot in the back 10 times and three women were also hit by gunfire in a parking lot shared by two nightclubs in northeast Philadelphia around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. About an hour later, in north Philadelphia, a man was shot in the head and critically injured and another man was hit in the arm and shoulder area during an alleged drug sale outside a fast-food establishment. Police said they don’t know who the target was of those shootings.

On Saturday, also in north Philadelphia, a 23-year-old man was critically injured by gunshot wounds to his chest, back and arms fired by a man whose face was covered by black “woman’s Muslim garb,” police said.

Aside from the 19-year-old man who was arrested, no arrests have been made in the shootings, police said.