PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — He was 70 years old. He lived in the neighborhood. And on Friday evening, someone shot him in the chest — and he still managed to keep driving.
That is the haunting detail at the center of a homicide investigation now unfolding in North Philadelphia’s Hunting Park neighborhood.
What police found at the scene
Just before 6:30 p.m., officers responded to reports of a car crash on the 4300 block of North 7th Street.
When they arrived, they found a 70-year-old man slumped inside a grey BMW 5 Series sedan. He had a single gunshot wound to the chest.
The car had crashed into a parked silver Acura MDX SUV. No one else was inside the BMW.
Officers rushed the man to Temple University Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 6:58 p.m.
The shooting may have happened somewhere else
Investigators do not believe the man was shot at the crash site.
According to Inspector D F Pace, police think the victim was shot at a different location and somehow kept driving before losing control and crashing.
Detectives are now working to reconstruct the BMW’s route — block by block — to find where the shooting actually took place.
Was he the target?
That question remains unanswered.
Police are still determining whether the man was deliberately targeted or was an innocent bystander caught in someone else’s gunfire.
No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.
A 70-year-old man — someone’s neighbor, someone’s family — did not come home Friday night. If you know anything about what happened, North Philadelphia needs you to come forward.
What do you think needs to change to make neighborhoods like Hunting Park safer? Share your thoughts in the comments.