A teenage babysitter was shot while two young girls slept just feet away in an East Mount Airy apartment, FOX 29 reported. The incident unfolded when the 16-year-old boy answered a knock at the door and was met with a barrage of at least six bullets, injuring him in the stomach and arm.

Upon their arrival, police discovered the injured teen and rushed him to the hospital where he remains in stable condition, the 16-year-old had been looking after his family members, ages 5 and 7, and they were unharmed even though they had been sleeping on the couch just inches from where bullets hit the living room wall, according to NBC Philadelphia, and police Commissioner Richard Ross remarked on the fortune that the children were not struck by the gunfire.

While the shooter remains unidentified and no immediate arrests have been made, eyewitness testimony and video surveillance footage from the apartment complex are currently under examination, as informed by authorities to CBS News Philadelphia. "Fortunately, there's cameras inside of the apartment complex and the hallways and by one of the entranceways, and there's also exterior surveillance cameras," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small in hopes that they will shed light on the assailant's identity.

This violent incident contributes to the concerning statistics that children comprise at least 11% of the over 276 shooting victims in Philadelphia this year, this shooting adds just one more chapter to the city's notorious struggle with gun violence, a challenge that poses a steep curb of safety to its youngest inhabitants, a reminder that the souls of cities, in their rush and clamor, too often forget the fragile lives that are at stake amid their concrete landscapes.