Xinhua News Agency
WASHINGTON — Two police officers were reportedly shot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city, during the Independence Day fireworks show on Monday night, July 4.
There was a “security incident” on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, according to the city’s office of emergency management. A manhunt is reportedly underway.
“For those looking to reunite with loved ones on the Parkway, please meet at 1901 Vine Street in front of the Free Library of Philadelphia,” the Philadelphia Police Department tweeted. “All others, please avoid the area.”
Footage posted on social media showed a large crowd of people fleeing from the scene as fireworks continued to blast in the sky.
Malcolm Kenyatta, a state lawmaker, tweeted that he’s “absolutely gutted by the reports of a shooting tonight.”
“We shouldn’t have to live like this,” Kenyatta wrote. “Family after family and community after community forced to live with the gut wrenching pain of gun violence.”
The shooting came only hours after at least six people were killed in a shooting in downtown Highland Park, Illinois, during a July 4th parade, with dozens of others injured.
A suspect in the Highland Park shooting has been taken into custody near Lake Forest, Illinois, officials said.
The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Robert Crimo III, was taken into custody without incident and will be taken to the Highland Park police department.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that he is “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”
The shootings on the federal holiday came less than two weeks after Biden signed into law what had been touted as a gun safety bill.
The narrow legislation was a response to two mass shootings in May, including a rampage that left 19 children and two teachers dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
There have been more than 22,300 deaths from gun violence and 311 mass shootings across the United States over the past six months or so, according to the latest data from the Gun Violence Archive. – gb