A 19-year-old woman was hospitalized in critical condition early Friday after, police said, she was shot while walking with friends in West Philadelphia.
According to Philadelphia Police Department Chief Inspector Scott Small, the incident happened at about 2:30 a.m. on Friday as the victim was walking with three friends — another woman and two men — near the intersection of 56th Street and Haverford Avenue.
At that point, he said, the group “exchanged words” with a man across the roadway before this individual produced a weapon and opened fire.
“When they began walking away, they saw the male pull a gun and he fired between two and four shots,” Small said on Friday morning.
The woman, he said, was struck in the chest and collapsed to the ground.
First responders took the woman to a nearby hospital where, Small said, she was listed in critical condition.
But, he said, when she was found, she was “conscious and talking” and her friends, who witnessed the incident, were cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
Witnesses, he said, described the shooter as a man in his 20s who was wearing dark-colored clothing and had a backpack with a “unique design” of teeth on it.
At the scene, Small said, investigators recovered two spent shells and they have located several surveillance cameras that may be helpful in the investigation.
He said footage from those cameras was being reviewed by investigators as an investigation into this incident remains ongoing.