Residents of the 1500 block of South Etting Street in South Philadelphia spent the morning after the Fourth of July weekend watching police officers circle, then collect, fragments of bullet shell casings from their porches, sidewalks, and street. When the police cleared out, bio-hazard service employees — hired by the city and clad in white Hazmat suits and respirator masks — came in and began scrubbing away blood from wherever it had fallen.
Just after 1 a.m. on Monday, 13 people were shot, three fatally, on this narrow one-way street in the Grays Ferry community. It was one of the worst mass shootings in Philadelphia in recent years, but not the only one to occur in recent days. And while city officials stress that homicides are down nearly 10 percent compared to this time last year, residents of South Etting Street and neighboring blocks are fearful. They wonder if the shootings that shattered the peace during the long holiday weekend could signal that progress to curb them has come to an end.
At the height of Philly’s gun violence crisis, more than 500 lives were lost in 2020 and again in 2021. This year, since July 1, 57 people have been shot, seven fatally, making this month Philadelphia’s most violent so far. July 7 was also the most violent day of 2025, with a staggering 23 people being added to the list of gunshot victims…