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As warming weather threatens to lead to a spike in street violence, Philadelphia law enforcement officials are warning residents they will vigorously pursue anyone who engages in retaliatory gunfire or other crimes.

People angered by violence against their friends or family should let the legal process play out rather than taking matters into their own hands and risk being arrested, District Attorney Larry Krasner said at press conference Tuesday.

“If there’s anyone out there who thinks, ‘well, I don’t like what happened with that particular incident, I’m going to go settle this’ — no, you’re not,” he said. “If you want to stay outside, then let the courts do what they do.”

Prosecutors said they are investigating several recent fatal incidents. Those include a shooting last week in which an 11-year-old allegedly killed his mother’s 30-year-old boyfriend, and a multi-vehicle crash in Germantown where two young men died, another was critically injured and a semiautomatic weapon was found in their car.

But officials also pointed to police department data showing that overall levels of violent crime continue to plummet even beyond last year’s historically low figures. 

There have been 18 homicides so far in 2026, less than half of the 37 recorded by this time last year. Total violent crimes are down 13%, with gun robberies and armed assaults falling by more than a quarter in the first nine weeks of the year. Property crimes like burglaries and residential theft are also down 15%.

“I’m never going to celebrate as long as there’s a single victim of crime. And I don’t know that any administration is going to end crime in our lifetime, but… it is going in the right direction, perhaps in part due to the fact that we had a lot of cold weather,” Krasner said. “It seems to be going down in general, in ways that are, almost in my lifetime, at least in my career, unprecedented at this point.”

Lengthy shooting investigation

Several of the crimes Krasner and his staff discussed involved young people. 

Assistant district attorney Anthony Voci of the DA’s youth justice division noted an incident in Kensington apparently rooted in a gang rivalry, one of a few shootings that occurred Monday. Two men committed a home invasion that spilled out into the street, resulting in serious injury to a 60-year-old woman and the shooting death of one of the attackers, he said.

He also discussed the shooting involving the 11-year-old boy, which he said sprang from a domestic dispute. He described it as “a tragedy across many different spectrums.”

Voci said the investigation of that incident will take time because investigators need to download, analyze and process digital evidence, and want to make sure the physical evidence matches witness reports.

Krasner again asked residents to leave the response to the incident to law enforcement.

“We and the Philadelphia Police Department have been very, very carefully sifting all the evidence to make sure that what we do here is the just outcome,” he said. “Don’t do things that are wrong on the street, because then we have to come after you, and we don’t want any of that. What we want is peace on the streets, and we want a just and fair outcome to that investigation.”

Digital evidence leads to long prison terms

Krasner pointed to a screen displaying the words “We outside too,” which he said refers to the fact that his staff, police, the FBI, and neighbors are out on the streets looking to identify people who commit retaliatory crimes.

“I know that a lot of juveniles everywhere, including in Philadelphia, are on their phones and they’re paying attention to social media and they’re talking within their own circles,” he said. “Do not wreck your life, thinking that somehow you’re bringing justice. We will bring the justice, and you know that we’ll be fair.”

The DA staffers highlighted their heavy use of information downloaded from phones to catch shooters.

Assistant district attorney William Fritze, who heads the office’s Gun Violence Task Force and digital forensics lab, said they have been using that kind of evidence to bring grand jury indictments and win sentences of 40 to 80 years for repeat violent offenders.

“We’re not arresting you for one incident that you committed. We’re arresting you for all of the incidents that you committed,” he said. “You’re being arrested because we can use your digital footprint and try as you may. There’s no deleting a digital footprint, so you will be held accountable in those cases.”