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Three People Shot In Head And Killed, SWAT Team Called In As Bloody Weekend In Kensington Continues

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 05:09 PST, Apr 17, 2016

Authorities have reported that early on Sunday morning a man in Kensington, Philadelphia, went on a violent shooting spree which left three people dead after suffering from gunshot wounds to the head and one more injured. The shooter barricaded himself inside a home and it was only after an hour long standoff that he finally surrendered to the police.

Police said that the continuation of the bloody weekend Kensington had been having began at about 3:45 a.m. Sunday when they received numerous phone calls reporting multiple gunshots in the 600 block of Westmoreland Street. According to NBC Philadelphia, when the police arrived in the area they found one man, who is believed to be the first victim of the shooter, suffering from a gunshot wound to the arm. The man was taken to a local hospital to receive treatment.

Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan stated that not long after finding that first victim, police received more calls about gunshots a block away but this time for gunshots fired inside of a home on Westmoreland Street near Tampa Street. Inspector Sullivan said that the police approached the house and were able to speak to a man through the door but he would not let them inside of the house nor would he come out. The shooter allegedly started yelling that he had a shotgun.

The police formed a barricade around the house by about 4:10 a.m. and called in the SWAT team as well as hostage negotiators. When the SWAT team members were in the midst of climbing onto a nearby roof the police say that the shooter stayed inside his house and fired several shots at them.

Sullivan revealed that after a while the man himself called 9-1-1 and spoke to a police supervisor telling him over the phone that he had already killed at least one person in the house with his shotgun. The hostage negotiators were eventually able to get through to the shooter and managed to convince him to give himself up. After almost an hour the man surrendered to the police peacefully at about 5 a.m. and was taken to be questioned.

When police entered the home, it was to a gruesome discovery. The man had shot and killed not one, but three people inside the home. The first victim encountered was on the living room floor, a male who had sustained a shotgun wound to the head; another man was found in the dining room on the floor with another apparent shotgun wound in his head and the final victim had the same shotgun wound to the head. The last victim was a female.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that detectives advised the three persons shot and killed were the shooter’s brother, the brother’s girlfriend and the other male had no relation to the shooter but lived inside the house. The shotgun was recovered inside the house. Sullivan called the scene “tragic.”

Though it is unclear what led to the shooting, the police say that the suspect is not unknown to the police. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the first man the police encountered was injured by the same shooter, but managed to escape.

This violent encounter happened less than a day after another shooting in Kensington, which led to the death of a 4-year-old-girl.

Initial reports by the Inquisitr of yesterday’s shooting stated that the little girl was accidentally shot in the face by her 5-year-old brother, but police have revealed new evidence since. The father of the girl had initially fled the scene but turned himself in to the police late last night, confessing that he was the one who accidentally killed his little girl.

An investigation into the shooting that left three people dead and one wounded this morning is still ongoing.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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