Mother, newborn baby hospitalized after shooting

OVERBROOK - May 25, 2011

Action News has learned that the victim is 20-year-old Dominique Seward.

"She was an innocent bystander," Seward's relative Albert Geiger told Action News.

Seward was shot once in the side last night during a melee outside Geiger's home on the 600 block of North 60th Street in West Philadelphia Tuesday night.

Seward was expecting her second child in mid-July.

Geiger says he and his family were inside watching TV when they heard a commotion outside.

"We came outside and we see a group of kids fighting in the street, next we heard gunshots and people started running and I see, [Dominique] grabbed me, and said, 'Pop-pop, I've been hit,'" Geiger said.

Dominique was bleeding profusely when police rushed her to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania for surgery overnight.

Today, they decided to induce labor. The premature baby boy was delivered early this afternoon; he is in neo-natal intensive care as the mother remains in critical condition, heavily medicated.

A 20-year-old male was also wounded and released from the hospital late today; he is being questioned by police.

Police believe he was among the brawlers last night battling with the man Albert Geiger calls his son when somebody pulled a gun and opened fire.

Police have recovered six shell casings from a .25 caliber handgun.

Police tell Action News the Geiger house has been a steady source of concern. Several weapons have been seized from inside the row house in recent months.

"It does appear there were people that are connected to that house that may have been involved in the altercation that was going on outside," Captain Ben Naish of the Philadelphia Police Department said.

Police say there may have been one or two shooters. A description of the suspects has not yet been released, but police say they come from the surrounding neighborhood.

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