Philly DA: South Street mass shooting began as a brawl between two men firing 17 bullets

One of the deadliest shootings in Philadelphia history began as a brawl between two men licensed to carry firearms who collectively fired at least 17 shots on a street packed with innocent bystanders, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Monday.

At least four guns were fired during a mass shooting on Philadelphia's South Street on Saturday, killing three and leaving 11 others shot and another person injured. Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore described four, distinct crime scenes that spanned a city block.

One of the alleged shooters, Gregory Jackson, 34, was killed on Saturday night, Pescatore said. A second alleged shooter, Micah Towns was in the hospital and has not been charged, she said. A third alleged shooter, Quran Garner was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a police officer, she said. A fourth person is sought in connection with the case, and that person's name was not released Monday.

Garner is currently hospitalized. On Saturday night, officials said Garner could be seen running from the scene and screaming, "He shot my hand off! He shot my hand off!"

Also hospitalized, Towns will not be charged, said Krasner. On video, Jackson could be seen attacking Towns, Krasner said. "We looked at what happened to Micah and we consider that self defense."

Garner and Towns have no prior history of arrest in Philadelphia, according to court records.

Few other details were released Monday.

At least four persons may have fired at least four guns at Second and South streets, investigators said. A police officer also reported a man firing a weapon near the corner of South and American streets located approximately 300 feet away.

That city block is home to more than dozen bars, clubs, trendy shops, and apartments. The street was packed with nightlife shortly after 11:30 p.m. Saturday, when the bullets started to fly.

Investigators are combing through surveillance video and hope to piece together exactly how events unfolded. Bullets pulled from the victims' bodies will be used to determine who shot whom, Pescatore said.

Krasner said Monday that his office would "hold back some information" and that the reason for not releasing that information would become clearer in the future.

The incident was the largest shootings since police began keeping records of such incidents in 2013, officials said. South Street was closed on Sunday night to traffic and pedestrians and re-opened shortly after 6 a.m. Monday.

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Saturday's events have jolted some in the city to demand action.

On Monday afternoon, the Philadelphia Eagles hosted a gun buyback event at Lincoln Financial Field offering $100 gift cards to each person who turned in an unloaded firearm.

At a press conference, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts begged the community to take action. "Something has got to change," said Hurts. "We've got to get these weapons off the streets."

"I can imagine my sister not coming home from her school," Hurts said. "I can imagine my grandma not coming home from the hospital where she's supposed to be safe and cared for."

But Philadelphia is not alone in this epidemic of gun violence.

Since the shooting on South Street, the National Gun Violence Memorial reported 10 additional mass shootings across the U.S. in the span of three days. Mass shootings were reported in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New York, South Carolina and Tennessee with 12 killed and 34 others injured across the U.S.

Police said in addition to Jackson, Saturday's violence claimed the lived of innocent bystander Alexis Quinn, 27. Kristopher Minners, 22, was identified by co-workers as the third victim and he too had no involvement in the altercations that led to the shooting. Police would not confirm his identity on Monday.

Of the 11 other victims shot in the incident, ages ranged from 17 to 69.

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The exact motive remains a mystery in a city which averages six shootings per day.

In January, Philadelphia City Council released the finds of a 100 Shootings Committee report. In the previous year, 2,300 people in the city were shot, according to that report.

Nearly half of those shootings resulted from arguments, investigators said. Drug trafficking was the second most common circumstance in 18% of shootings in the city that year.

The pandemic has created a backlog of criminal cases involving guns in Philadelphia. The city had a backlog of 4,571 open gun cases in December 2021, an increase of 171%, from the end of 2019, the report stated. The conviction rate in fatal shootings has also fallen from 96% in the year 2016 to just 80% in the year 2020, according to the report.

Most victims of gun violence are from the city's poorer North and West Philadelphia sections. Of the 189 fatal shootings reported between Jan. 1 and June 2, nearly all occurred in North and West Philadelphia, according to the Office of City Controllers "Mapping Gun Violence" database.

In recent months, gun violence has crept into more affluent and tourist areas of the city, threatening business. Prior to the Saturday's mass shooting, no fatal shootings were reported in the city's historic Society Hill and Old City sections near South Street.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Philly DA: South Street Mass Shooting began as a gun fight, brawl