PHILADELPHIA: Mass shootings in Pennsylvania and Tennessee killed at least six people and wounded more than 25, police said on Sunday in the latest cases of US gun violence after recent massacres in Texas, New York and Oklahoma.
Multiple shooters opened fire in Philadelphia’s busy South Street, an area filled with bars and restaurants, shortly before midnight on Saturday. Two men and a woman were killed, officials said, with two of the dead and most if not all of the wounded being innocent bystanders.
Surveillance video showed people on a crowded street running in panic in the closing moments of the 22-second clip, presumably after gunshots were fired. The clip had no audio. Reuters was able to verify the video using geolocation.
Likewise in Chattanooga, Tennessee, shooting broke out as people were otherwise enjoying a Saturday night on the town, though the violence erupted after midnight.
No suspects were in custody in either shooting.
In yet another shooting in the early hours of Sunday, three people were killed in Saginaw, Michigan, Mlive.com reported, citing Saginaw police.
In the Chattanooga shooting, three people were dead and 14 suffered gunshot wounds, authorities said, adding that two people died from gunshot wounds and one person died from injuries after being struck by a vehicle while fleeing the scene.
Three victims were injured as they attempted to flee and were struck by vehicles, Tennessee officials said, adding several among the injured remained in critical condition.
The incidents followed recent shootings that killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York; 21 victims at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; and four people at a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gun safety advocates are pushing the US government to take stronger measures to curb gun violence.
There have been at least 240 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group. It defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Philadelphia police reported at least three separate shooting incidents in the crowded South Street entertainment district on Saturday night, involving at least five shooters.
In the one deadly outburst, police believe two men got into a physical altercation and began shooting at each other, and one of those two was killed by gunfire. A police officer observed the other shooter firing into the crowd and fired at him.
Police believe that shooter was wounded as he dropped his gun, but he nevertheless escaped through the crowd, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told a news conference
“We’re still using every resource available to get to the bottom of what occurred, not just out there last night, but behind this gun violence in this city, period,” Outlaw said.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney described the shooting as “horrendous, despicable and senseless.” The deceased were aged 22, 27 and 34 while the ages of the people wounded ranged from 17 to 69.
There were multiple shooters in Tennessee as well. Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy appealed for the public’s help, asking any witnesses to call a tip line.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures to address the string of mass shootings.
Chris Murphy, the lead Democratic US senator working on bipartisan gun safety talks, said on Sunday he thinks a package including investments in mental health and school safety and some changes to gun laws can pass Congress.
A broad majority of American voters, both Republicans and Democrats, favor stronger gun control laws, but Republicans in Congress and some moderate Democrats have blocked such legislation for years.
Six dead in Philadelphia and Tennessee in latest US mass shootings
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Six dead in Philadelphia and Tennessee in latest US mass shootings
- Investigators believe one of the three killed was involved in “a physical altercation” with another man, and those two began firing at each other, with both struck by gunfire, Outlaw said
Swedish intelligence chief says ‘risk’ of security situation deteriorating
- Essen said Russia had conducted “security-threatening activities against Sweden and in Sweden” for years
- There had also been sabotage in the Baltic states and in Germany
STOCKHOLM: The head of Sweden’s intelligence service told AFP Tuesday that there was a “risk” that an already serious security situation would continue to deteriorate, pointing primarily to a threat from Russia.
Charlotte von Essen said Russia had conducted “security-threatening activities against Sweden and in Sweden” for a number of years.
“This involves everything from intelligence gathering, influence operations, and illegal technology acquisition. But it also involves sabotage activities,” she added.
There had also been sabotage in the Baltic states and in Germany, said von Essen, head of the Swedish Security Service (Sapo).
But amid recurring reports of suspected drone flights, she cautioned about attributing too much to Russia.
“One might get the impression that Sweden has been subjected to extensive hybrid activities,” von Essen said, saying her service did not share “that view.”
Some of the drone sightings had not checked out and some suspected sabotage had turned out to have been things like break-ins related to more traditional crime.
Von Essen insisted that some activities, such as cyberattacks, could still be linked to “foreign powers.”
“We need to be careful before we speculate and draw conclusions, because Russia is not behind everything,” von Essen said.
Attributing too much to foreign powers risked playing into their hands and could lead to a misallocation of resources.
Apart from Russia, von Essen said that both China and Iran posed threats to Swedish security.
“We’ve previously pointed out that Iran uses criminal networks in Sweden as proxies to carry out attacks here to achieve its objectives,” she said.
When it came to China, the threat was mostly about Chinese attempts to access Swedish research “in order to build, among other things, its own military capability.”
Last week von Essen decided to keep the terrorist threat assessment at an “elevated” level — keeping it at three on a five point scale.
It has been at that level since May last year, when it was lowered from four.
Sapo had raised the level to four in August 2023, after a slew of protests involving Qur'an burnings and desecrations had made the country a “prioritized target.”
