Five football players were gunned down on the same day the mayor of Philadelphia signed an executive order banning guns in certain places. However, the executive order did not stop the five football players from being “ambushed” after a game on Tuesday evening. During the attack, authorities said a 14-year-old boy was killed.
After a game at Roxborough High School, Philadelphia Police First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford told reporters that two gunmen are thought to have opened fire, killing the 14-year-old boy.
A police statement said that gunfire exploded from a light green Ford Explorer as the players were exiting the field.
A bullet hit the teen in the chest. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 5:09 p.m., the statement continued.
A 17-year-old who was struck once in the arm and three times in the leg, and a 14-year-old who was hit once in the thigh, were among the other victims. Stanford said another player was grazed.
No information was given about the injuries of the fifth victim.
Stanford said police do not have a motive, and no other information about the suspects, or the victims, has been released at this time.
The scrimmage involved players from three schools. However, all the victims attended Roxborough, northwest of downtown Philadelphia, Stanford said.
“A lot” of bullets appeared to have been fired at the football players, Stanford explained.
“The biggest piece of this — there’s a 14-year-old doing what students do, having football games at the end of the day,” Stanford said. “It’s one of the things we encourage our kids to do.”
While speaking to reporters, Philadelphia School Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said he was “personally disturbed and quite frankly angry with this senseless act of violence.”
Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order banning guns at city recreation centers, playgrounds, pools, and similar facilities the day the shooting took place.
