PHILADELPHIA, PA – Early Thursday morning, a triple shooting in Philadelphia’s Belmont neighborhood resulted in one fatality. The crime occurred at the Half Moon Lounge on Lancaster Avenue, where an argument supposedly escalated into a deadly shooting.
Police reports state that the incident occurred shortly before 3 a.m. Inside the bar, authorities discovered a 44-year-old man suffering gunshot wounds to his abdomen and back. Despite being rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, the man later succumbed to his injuries and was officially pronounced dead around 3:30 a.m.
As officers were responding to the shooting at the Half Moon Lounge, they were alerted to another shooting incident on the 4100 block of Haverford Avenue. Upon arrival, a 38-year-old man was found having sustained gunshot wounds to his hands. The victim, now in stable condition after hospital care, affirmed to police that he was also shot within the premises of Half Moon Lounge.
Meanwhile, a third victim, a 44-year-old female, communicated to police that she was shot in the foot while at the bar but managed to make her way home in Southwest Philadelphia. Officers responded to her residence and transported her to the hospital, where she currently remains in stable condition.
According to Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small, approximately 30 people were present on the bar’s second floor at the time of the shooting, and at least four shots were discharged. In their ongoing investigation, detectives have retained multiple individuals from the ground floor of the bar.