2 killed in Fairmount Park mass shooting identified; 9 others wounded
The victims killed have been identified as 23-year-old Amya Devlin and 21-year-old Mikhail Bowers.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Two people are dead and nine others were wounded after a mass shooting in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park late Monday night.
The victims killed include an adult man and an adult woman. They have been identified as 23-year-old Amya Devlin and 21-year-old Mikhail Bowers.
"He was a happy, go-lucky child. He got into a little mischief, but other than that, he was perfect," said Mikhail's grandmother, Wander Bowers.
The victims who were wounded range in age from 15 to 28 years old, all of whom are in stable condition at area hospitals.
The gunfire erupted around 10:27 p.m. Monday on Lemon Hill Drive at Poplar Drive.
Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a news conference on Tuesday that there are believed to be three shooters involved. Officers recovered 21 shell casings that show three different weapons were used.
No one is in custody, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.
Bethel said Tuesday that investigators are confident that at least one of the weapons used in the shooting had a device known as a 'switch' on it, which allows a semiautomatic weapon to become fully automatic.
"We will not be held hostage by anyone who decides that they want to get assault-like, war-like weaponry... guns with switches," Parker said.
Bethel says there are usually a lot of people in the park when it gets warm, especially on a holiday, and that officers were managing crowds all over the city.
The shooting occurred despite officers' presence in the park, Bethel said.
"We try to manage the crowds as they unfold, but at the same token, it is a challenge when individuals decide that they're going to fire into a crowd," Bethel said.
Bethel said his team will be coming up with a plan to put more officers into the park so they can put a stop to potential incidents before they get out of control.
"Right now, the intelligence coming through our portal is not fast enough. We need to evolve, so we're going to be putting in law enforcement assets into the park to identify activity ahead with the hope that we can stave off these activities before they occur," Bethel said.
Police are also looking into how a crashed Hyundai was involved and whether any victims were inside. They're also going to be looking into reports of 911 calls earlier in the night about disturbances around the park.
The area of Fairmount Park where the shooting happened, that's just off of Kelly Drive, north of Boathouse Row, is a popular spot for cookouts.
Police released the following details about the victims who were wounded:
-15-year-old boy shot in the thigh
-16-year-old girl shot in the thigh
-17-year-old girl shot in the leg
-18-year-old woman shot in the foot
-19-year-old woman shot in the head
-19-year-old woman shot in the hand
-20-year-old man shot in the arm
-23-year-old woman shot in the nose
-28-year-old man shot in the arm
