Nov. 23 (UPI) — Four high school students were shot Wednesday in a drive-by shooting close to Overbrook High School, according to Philadelphia Police.
The four wounded students don’t appear to have life-threatening injuries, according to police. Philadelphia First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford said it isn’t immediately clear if it was a targeted shooting.
The four students were shot after school was dismissed three hours early for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Police said a silver Hyundai SUV drove up to a group of students standing outside a beauty salon and shots came from inside that vehicle. Two 16-year-old boys were wounded, sustaining a head graze wound and a leg wound. Two 15-year-old girls were also hit in a shoulder and with a graze wound to a shoulder.
The wounded students were taken to a hospital and are in stable condition.
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan said in a statement: “The ongoing scourge of gun violence continues to plague our city and our nation. I am enraged by the shooting outside of Overbrook High School this afternoon that injured four students and surely traumatized so many more students, staff and community members.”
He said he is grateful that the students injured appear to be in stable condition.
“I am disgusted by the level of violence impacting so many across this city and nation,” he said. “It is well past time for meaningful and sustainable action on gun reform.”
In October, a student and a teacher were killed in St. Louis at the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School.
The United States is averaging nearly two mass shootings a day in 2022.
