29.03.2024

At least seven wounded after gunman opens fire near transit station

Police say that a 71-year-old man remains in critical condition after he was hit once in the stomach and multiple times in the legs.

A mass shooting has left at least seven people wounded at a station in Philadelphia, police say.

The gunman opened fire near the SEPTA station in the Olney area of the city at around 2.50pm ET, according to reports.

A 22-year-old man was shot in the back, two other men aged 21 and 53 were struck in the legs, a 17-year-old girl was shot in the right arm, and a 36-year-old woman and 70-year-old man were each hit in the thigh.

All six of those victims are reportedly in stable condition in hospital.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw described the shooting as a “very brazen” incident.

“We were able to get someone in custody as quickly as we did because we had officers in the area working on another assignment,” she said.

“I think it’s very telling that folks that are willing to engage in these shootings are becoming more and more emboldened regardless or not if they see us out here.”

Philadelphia police say they do not have information on the wounds of two of the victims, or any of their conditions.

Six of the victims were taken to the city’s Albert Einstein Medical Center while a seventh victim was transported by police to Temple University Hospital.

At least one person was arrested in connection with the incident and two guns were recovered at the scene.

Philadelphia police say that as of Monday 257 people had been shot in the city so far in 2021, a 56 per cent increase over 2020.

The incident on Wednesday saw the largest number of woundings in one single incident this year.

LAPD launches probe into claims cops shared George Floyd image with phrase ‘you take my breath away’

The Los Angeles Police Department is conducting an internal investigation after allegations that some employees circulated a Valentines-style image of George Floyd with the caption, “You take my breath away.”

“The Department will have zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” the LAPD said on Saturday in a tweet. The department declined to comment further when reached byThe Independent.

Mr Floyd, who was Black, was killed in police custody last May after an officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck while he was handcuffed for almost nine minutes. Mr Floyd repeatedly said that he couldn’t breathe before he died.

The LAPD has launched an internal investigation including interviewing the employee who alerted them to the image.

“At this point the Department has not identified any actual postings in the workplace or identified that it was in fact our department employee who created the image,” the LAPD said in the statement. “We have raised the apparent existence of the image and directed commands to survey the worksites for it.”

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and is facing trial this spring. Mr Floyd’s death sparked the biggest nationwide civil rights protests in generations.

The protests have taken place in cities across America over the past year, including in Los Angeles.

At the time, Los Angeles police chief Michel Moore said of looters that Mr Floyd’s death was “on their hands as much as it is on those offices,” though he later apologized.

Following the demonstrations, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti sought to redirect up to $150 million from the police budget to social services.

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