Funeral directors bring awareness to gun violence with hearse parade
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Funeral directors hit the streets of Philadelphia on Sunday to bring attention to the alarming gun violence, drug addiction and the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 50 hearses from local funeral homes gathered in North Philadelphia and processed from street to street.
The Quaker State Funeral Directors Association organized this somber parade through some of Philadelphia's most impacted neighborhoods.
READ MORE: Two men shot in attempted armed robbery outside South Philadelphia nightclub
"We just wanted to get out into the community and let everyone see a visual reminder of what 2020 has been thus far," said Escamillio Jones, president of the Quaker State Funeral Directors Association.
"They see this line of hearses coming through and honking our horns like crazy demanding attention," added Jennifer Rose Schlueter, vice president of the Quaker State Funeral Directors Association.
To date, 393 homicide have been recorded in the city this year.
Early Sunday morning, police say they responded to a report of a person with a gun in the 6400 block of Rising Sun Avenue in Lawndale. When they arrived they found a 37-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Einstein Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
READ MORE: Man fatally shot outside of Lawndale Family Dollar store, Philadelphia police said
Then around 11:30 a.m., police say a 24-year-old man was shot in the stomach on North 62nd Street in West Philadelphia. An officer took the victim to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. No arrests have been made.
So far this weekend, 11 people have been shot, five of them have died from their injuries.
