The officer was “within 10 to 15 yards of the shooter, watching this person shoot into the crowd” when he decided to engage, Pace said.
At least 14 people were struck by the barrage of gunfire, police said. Three of them, two men and a woman, were shot multiple times and died at the hospital.
“Once again, we see lives senselessly lost and those injured in yet another horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a written statement Sunday morning. “My heart is with the family, friends, loved ones of those lost or injured, and with everyone impacted by this terrible tragedy.
South Street is a popular area in Philadelphia lined with restaurants, shops and bars. It is highly trafficked among both locals and tourists.
“There were hundreds of individuals just enjoying South Street, as they do every weekend, when this shooting broke out,” Pace said.
Pace said two guns were found at the scene, one of them with an extended magazine.
The search for the gunmen continued Sunday morning, police said. One of the shooters was last seen running south on American Street between 2nd and 3rd streets.
Police are hoping businesses along South Street captured the shooting on surveillance video.
“I want to emphasize that South Street is manned by numerous police officers,” Pace said. “This is standard deployment for Friday and Saturday night – weekends – and especially during the summer months.”
Philadelphia police said a separate shooting incident happened nearby around 11 p.m. Officers found 13 bullet casings at 4th and Bainbridge, a couple blocks away. Pace said investigators are looking into whether there’s a connection in the two shootings.
Last Tuesday, video captured the moments a woman and other gunmen opened fire on the 400 block of South Street – less than two blocks away from Saturday night’s shooting. One man was injured.
“Furious. I am furious, not just for my neighborhood, for the whole country. If I hear one more time ‘thoughts and prayers’ – bull—,” neighbor Maureen Long said through tears. “We cannot disagree about this. We have to do something. I don’t care what your political leanings are. We can’t continue to let people kill people.”
The Saturday shooting in Philadelphia is just the latest in a spate of mass shootings across the country.
In Buffalo, New York, a gunman killed 10 Black people and wounded three others at a supermarket in what authorities said was a racially motivated attack. In Uvalde, Texas, another gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. In Oklahoma, a man killed four people and wounded several others inside a Tulsa medical building.
Data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive show that gun violence deaths more than doubled nationwide from 2018 to 2019, when such deaths totaled 39,572.
In the years since, gun violence deaths have only increased. There were 43,658 such deaths in 2020 and 44,957 in 2021, according to the GVA. Thus far in 2022, there have been at least 18,564 deaths related to gun violence across the United States, according to the group.
In Philadelphia, the toll of gun violence is not reserved to isolated mass shootings, however.
A gun violence tracker from the city controller’s office tallied 743 nonfatal and 188 fatal shooting victims as of June 2. Several shootings have occurred in the days since, with the number of fatal and nonfatal victims both sure to rise.
Shootings have accounted for the most killings in Philadelphia this year. The slight bit of positive news amid the carnage, though, is that killings as of Saturday night were at 211, down from the 225 seen at the same time in 2021, which finished as the year with the most murders since the city first began keeping record.
The recent high-profile shootings, though, have renewed calls for stricter gun control amid rising gun violence across the country.
President Joe Biden on Thursday acknowledged there is little left for him to do through executive action and called on Congress to pass legislation to tighten gun laws. While the Uvalde shooting renewed bipartisan talks about modest gun reforms, such talks have broken down in the past.
Meanwhile, legislators in Philadelphia are barred by Pennsylvania’s preemption law from enacting gun control statutes that are stricter than state laws.
“We cannot accept continued violence as a way of life in our country. Until we address the availability and ease of access to firearms, we will always be fighting an uphill battle,” Kenney said in his statement. “As Mayor, I will continue to fight to protect our communities and urge others to advocate for stronger laws that keep guns out of the hands of violent individuals.”
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