A boy was shot Tuesday afternoon in North Philadelphia’s Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood. Police placed the shooting at about 2:39 p.m. on the 3800 block of North Smedley Street.
Officers transported the boy to a hospital themselves instead of waiting for an ambulance, NBC10 Philadelphia reported, citing the Philadelphia Police Department. Police said he was listed in stable condition after arriving. No further details about the circumstances, a possible suspect or an arrest have been released.
A Pattern of Young Victims Across North Philadelphia
Tuesday’s shooting adds to a string of recent North Philadelphia incidents in which children were struck by gunfire and survived. In one case, a 16-year-old boy was shot on the 2100 block of North 22nd Street just before 5 p.m. on a Saturday and taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was placed in stable condition, per a report from CBS News Philadelphia.
In another incident, a 7-year-old girl arrived at Temple University Hospital with gunshot wounds to her arm after being driven there in a private vehicle, PHL17 reported. Police said that shooting happened on the 3000 block of North Marshall Street in Fairhill, and the girl was also listed in stable condition. A separate case described by Patch involved a 14-year-old boy shot in the stomach during what Philadelphia Police Department Chief Inspector Scott Small said appeared to be an accidental shooting at a North Philly home on a Thursday night; he was taken to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and placed in stable condition.
Children Making Up a Growing Share of Shooting Victims
The frequency of these cases lines up with a broader trend documented by Chalkbeat. Children injured but not killed by gunfire made up about 8% of Philadelphia’s 2,245 shooting victims in 2020, but accounted for 11% of the 939 people shot in the city last year, according to the outlet’s analysis.
City data cited by Chalkbeat counted 852 nonfatal shootings of Philadelphia residents 17 and under since 2021. Community experts and physicians interviewed for that reporting attributed part of the rise to young people’s susceptibility to peer and social-media pressure to carry guns.
No additional details have been released about Tuesday’s shooting on Smedley Street, including the boy’s age or the circumstances that led to the gunfire.
Support Resources After Violence
Philadelphia lists general support options for people affected by violence. The Office of the Victim Advocate says it provides free, confidential, trauma-informed advocacy to victims of violent crime and their loved ones. The city’s Network of Neighbors offers free, community-based trauma support after violence and other distressing events. Neither resource is described as serving the Smedley Street family.
