PHILADELPHIA. — Authorities say a father and his 9-year-old son were killed in a drive-by shooting in Philadelphia during a violent holiday weekend that’s seen at least nine other homicides in the city.
Separately, two women and an unborn child were fatally shot inside a car Sunday following a domestic dispute in suburban Chester County, according to the district attorney’s office. A suspect was arrested after allegedly stealing a car at gunpoint and a police pursuit.
And on the other side of the state, Pittsburgh police announced an arrest Monday in a drive-by shooting that took the life of a 1-year-old infant the previous afternoon.
In Philadelphia, Inspector D.F. Pace told reporters the slain 38-year-old father was in a car with his son and had just parked near his home when more than a dozen shots were fired from another vehicle at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. The two victims were taken to separate hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. The victims had not been identified by police as of Monday.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney demanded an end to the violence.
“Families and friends are losing loved ones, and our youth are having their lives and potential cut short,” he tweeted. “We must all work together to end this heartbreaking, maddening epidemic.”
In Chester County, District Attorney Deb Ryan said Mamadou Kallie, 23, of Coatesville, was charged with two counts of homicide and killing an unborn child.
Ryan’s office said Coatesville police responded to a domestic dispute involving Kallie and one of the victims at around 9:20 p.m. Sunday. Thirty minutes later, Valley Township police responded to a vehicle crash and reports of shots fired, and found two women who had been shot multiple times. They were not identified.
A 22-month-old child in the back seat was unharmed.
Kallie was arrested at around 11:40 p.m. after a carjacking and police pursuit, the district attorney’s office said. It was unclear whether Falconer had an attorney.
“These senseless and tragic murders of two women and an unborn child should outrage everyone. Domestic violence continues to plague our communities and our homes,» Ryan said in a statement.
In western Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office identified the infant killed Saturday as DeAvry Thomas.
Assistant Chief Lavonnie Bickerstaff said neither the child nor his mother were the intended target of the shooting. Officials said the vehicle involved in the drive-by had been recovered in Pittsburgh, and on Monday announced homicide and criminal conspiracy charges against 26-year-old Londell Falconer. It was unclear whether Falconer had an attorney; messages could not be left Monday at numbers listed for that name.
At least nine people have been fatally shot in Philadelphia since the start of Memorial Day Weekend on Saturday, many in the city’s north.
Police said a shooting at around 6:40 p.m. Monday in north Philadelphia killed a 26-year-old man and hospitalized a 23-year-old in critical condition after being shot multiple times in the torso.
An unidentified man was gunned down in a different part of north Philadelphia just after 1 a.m. Monday, and a 66-year-old man was killed in another part of the city’s north shortly before 5 a.m. Monday, police said.
Two women were killed at a party and two other people were wounded, including a 14-year-old girl, in the city’s northeast just after 1 a.m. Monday, according to police.
A shooting at 9:30 p.m. Sunday in north Philadelphia killed a 56-year-old man and wounded a 33-year-old woman, police said.
In the second of three homicides Sunday, a 34-year-old man was shot multiple times at about 10:15 a.m. in East Germantown and later died at a hospital, and the gunfire wounded two women leaving a funeral service, one critically, a police representative told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
