They are simple necessities for a young boy on a frigid night a shoe and two gloves but on Tuesday night they're bitter reminders of another innocent victim shot.
"They'll fire arbitrarily, they don't care if they hit an innocent victim like in this particular situation a 9 year old gets hit twice," said Chief Inspector Scott Small of the Philadelphia police department.
Police believe the shooter was targeting an 18-year-old leaving a food market at Tasker and Taney. Bullets ripped through the area, one hit a van, two hit the intended victim and two others hit the boy, who despite his injuries did what he could to flee the scene.
"Ran around the corner to his house on the 15-hundred block of Bailey Street where we discovered he was shot in the left side of his chest and his left foot."
As a store clerk cleaned up the spilled blood detectives searched for clues. They have no suspects.
There was a shooting at the same location last week. In response, police stepped up patrols in the area but once again, a young boy's life has been shattered and police are left to pick up the pieces.
"It takes seconds to shoot someone and as soon as these perpetrators see that the coast is clear and there is no police in the area we may be a block or two away. They know in a split second they can fire away."
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