A shooting that happened outside of a sports bar in Philadelphia left at least seven people injured, including three critically, authorities said late on Friday.
The incident was reportedly prompted after people inside the bar got into an argument, leading to the shooting that occurred at approximately 8 p.m. outside Golf & Social, a three-floor sports bar in the Fishtown neighborhood, FOX 29 reported.
All of the victims were transported to a local hospital, where three of the victims are in critical condition while four are listed as stable.
Police identified the victims as ranging between the ages of 18 and 42.
A person of interest was taken into custody with no further details around the individual being released yet.
In surveillance footage from the shooting, the gunman was seen firing into a crowd of people, FOX 29 reported.
At the same time police responded to the shooting, they were also called for an alleged robbery in the Falktown neighborhood.
Police recovered two semi-automatic handguns in a vehicle parked at the Rivers Casino parking lot.
A second car that had a stolen status was also recovered at the lot. Both vehicles were taken into police custody for further investigation.
Earlier in Philadelphia that same Friday night, an 11-year-old child was killed in a separate shooting that also left a 14-year-old boy injured, police said in a statement, The Associated Press reported.
No arrests were announced as of Friday night and detectives haven’t recovered any weapon from the location of the shooting in northeast Philadelphia’s Oxford Circle neighborhood.
Philadelphia has recently seen a surge in crimes, especially violent offenses. The Pennsylvanian city is considered to be among the most dangerous big cities in the United States with a murder rate of 21.5 per 100,000 people.
Experts believe that the rise in killings across the United States in 2020 can be linked to stressors introduced or exacerbated by situations stemming from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, which causes the disease COVID-19.
“Homicides are linked to all the pandemic conditions: the higher unemployment, mental, emotional, physical, financial stress, and then that’s concentrated in areas that typically contain higher amounts of poverty,” Christopher Herrmann, assistant professor at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Epoch Times.