Officers Wounded, Masses Scatter After Shooting Near Parkway Concert

Police were responding after two officers were shot near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as thousands of people celebrated a 4th of July concert and fireworks show.

One officer sustained a graze wound to the head and the other a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. Both were in treated and released from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, she said.

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The gunman was not immediately arrested. It was unclear if the officers were targeted or if they were struck during “celebratory gunfire” amid 4th of July festivities, Outlaw said.

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The gunfire broke out around 9:47 p.m. near the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the final day of the Wawa Welcome America festival as throngs of people watched a fireworks show following a concert headlined by Jason Derulo on the parkway, police said.

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Fellow reporter Karen Hua reported laying in the dirt inside a tent with other people.

“We made a fort around us with catering equipment. Everyone is crying or screaming,” Hua tweeted. “It has just been a night of absolute horror and terror,” Hua said later.

Mayor Jim Kenney lamented what he said was people’s easy access to guns. He laid the blame on the Republican-controlled state legislature, which prevents Philadelphia from enacting stricter gun control measures, as well as the U.S. Congress, which only recently was able to pass some moderate gun control laws following a spate of mass shootings throughout the country.

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