1 killed, 1 critical in separate West Philadelphia shootings hours apart
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A man is dead and another is recovering from being shot in the head in two separate incidents in West Philadelphia that occurred in the same area just hours apart.
Bullets shot through a car around 1:10 a.m. Tuesday on the 5100 block of Arch Street wounding a man sitting in the backseat.
Police said the 36-year-old victim managed to climb into the driver's seat. He was able to drive to flag down officers for help.
The victim was taken to the hospital in critical but stable condition. Police said he will survive.
Police then responded to another shooting just after 3:30 a.m. on the 100 block of Farson Street.
Arriving officers found a 25-year-old man lying unresponsive on the roadway near a small mountain bike.
Officer took the victim to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Police said at least 16 shots were fired.
Philadelphia Police Inspector Scott Small said it appears based on ballistic evidence the shooter was standing very close to the victim when the shots were fired.
Two parked vehicles were also struck.
Small said the victim's girlfriend was with him at the time of the shooting. She was not injured. They both lived on the same block as the incident.
Small said family members and friends told police this may have been a domestic incident involving an ex-boyfriend.
"That's the preliminary information we are getting," Small said.
There were surveillance cameras in the area and police are hoping they recorded the suspect.
Small said, at this time, the shootings do not appear to be related, despite the proximity.
"At this time, we don't believe these two incidents, although they are only about two blocks away from each other and they happened a little over three hours timeframe from each - it's very close - however, at this time, we don't believe they are related," Small said. "We are going to look at the possibility that they are related, but for now, we're going to treat them as two separate, isolated incidents."
