Philadelphia mass shooting: 1 dead, 8 injured on July 4

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Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker traveled to Southwest Philadelphia and joined other city leaders at the scene of a mass shooting in Philadelphia's Kingsessing neighborhood.

Nine people were shot and wounded in the neighborhood Thursday evening, one of them fatally.

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said the shooting was likely the result of a traveling rally that began in North Philadelphia. Police broke up the rally, but it moved to Kingsessing, where the mass shooting eventually occurred.

“We have made significant progress in identifying a vehicle involved, and we are working through that process with our detectives, but let me be clear: One of the challenges we face, as the mayor has indicated, is these one-off events.”

Parker said that even though this is the second mass shooting in the neighborhood in just over a year, they will fight to end the violence.

“This is not right and we will not tolerate it. We will use every resource possible to address this, including our intergovernmental partners at the local, state and federal levels,” Parker said.

The incident apparently occurred during a pop-up event, advertised on social media, that created a large gathering in a short period of time. Bethel said nothing good comes from these last-minute parties and the city will work to prevent similar gatherings in the future.

“We’re going to take a tougher stance on enforcement as our youth multiply in the city. We’re going to work with parents and community members to do that,” he said. “Many of the kids and most of the people who were shot were not from this neighborhood.”

Bethel warned parents that one-off events are dangerous.

“If your child goes to a pop-up event, there's a good chance that behavior will converge into something negative. We learned that from our flash mobs, when kids get together and have nothing to do with what's going on. [to do] “Apart from coming together, often times negative things come out of it,” Bethel said.