Two people were killed and nine others – including three teenagers — were injured in a shooting near Lemon Hill Mansion in Fairmount Park on Monday night, police said.
Rapid gunfire broke out at 10:27 p.m. amid a large group of young people that had gathered near Lemon Hill and Sedgley drives on Memorial Day, police said. Mikhail Bowers, 21, and Amya Devlin, 23, were pronounced dead after being taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
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Three people opened fire on the crowd, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said during a Tuesday morning press conference. Investigators are not sure whether anyone returned fire. Police officers were in the area when the shooting happened, but no arrests have been made and no weapons have been recovered.
The nine injured people were taken to multiple hospitals and are in stable condition, police said. They included:
• A boy, 15, who was shot in the left thigh
• A girl, 16, who was shot in the left thigh
• A girl, 17, who was shot in the left leg
• A woman, 18, who was shot in the foot
• A woman, 19, who was shot in the left hand
• A woman, 19, who was shot in the head
• A man, 20, who was shot in the left arm
• A woman, 23, who was shot in the nose
• A man, 28, who was shot in the left arm
Investigators have not released any information about the suspects. The area around Lemon Hill was shut down into Tuesday morning.
Police believe glock switches, which turn semi-automatic handguns into fully automatic ones, likely were used by the shooters. The devices are outlawed in more than half of U.S. states, but are legal in Pennsylvania. Rapid-fire gun devices were banned in Philadelphia in June 2024.
Lemon Hill, which overlooks Boathouse Row and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is a popular gathering place on Memorial Day and other summer holidays. Next summer, it will host Philadelphia's FIFA Fan Festival during the World Cup.
Investigators have received conflicting reports about the number of people in the crowd when the shooting occurred, Bethel and Mayor Cherelle Parker said during the press conference.
Another person was hospitalized after being hit by a car in the aftermath of the shooting, CBS reported.
Parker touted the city's declining homicide rate and vowed to continue her administration's efforts to reduce gun violence.
"We're not going back to those old stats," Parker said. "That means we need all hands on deck, that means everybody has a role, that means, yes, parents need to know where their children are and what they are doing."
Parker said she was working with Council President Kenyatta Johnson, Councilmember Curtis Jones and Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. on "some ideas about some things that are not going to be popular" regarding how to prevent gun violence and deter these types of meetings.
"When you see us making some decisions that are not popular, you will understand why," Parker said. "We are not going to be held hostage."
Parker and Bethel said Monday night's shooting stemmed from a large gathering of young people, although they did not know how many were there.
This story has been updated to include information from the Parker administration's press conference on Tuesday morning.
