FILE PHOTO: In this Nov. 19, 2018, file photo, police gather at the scene of a quadruple fatal shooting in Philadelphia. Philadelphia's homicide rate is the highest in over a decade, as a particularly violent summer morphed into a deadly fall and the mayor declared gun violence a public health emergency.
WHYY reporter Tom MacDonald is a lifelong Philadelphia area resident who has worked in the region since the mid-1980s. Tom started in commercial radio covering the MOVE standoff with police for WFIL-AM. He was also City Hall Bureau Chief covering government and politics for more than a decade for WWDB-FM.
Tom has been heard on numerous stations in the region during the decade he worked for Metro Traffic, doing news, traffic and weather.
Tom has also been heard nationally, doing reports for NPR, ABC News Radio, NBC Radio, and CBS Radio.
He has won the Associated Press award for his coverage of the protests of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and a Religious Communicators award for a post-9/11 documentary he did with the late Peter Jennings.
Tom MacDonald is a lifelong Philadelphia area resident who has worked in the area since the mid 1980s. Tom started in commercial radio covering the MOVE standoff with police for WFIL-AM. He was also City Hall Bureau Chief covering government and politics for more than a decade for WWDB-FM.
Tom has been heard on numerous stations in the region during the decade he worked for Metro Traffic, doing news, traffic and weather.
Tom has also been heard nationally, doing reports for NPR ,ABC News Radio, NBC Radio, and CBS Radio.
He has won the Associated Press award for his coverage of the protests of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and a Religious Communicators award for a post 9-11 documentary he did with the late Peter Jennings.
Matt Rourke / The Associated Press
FILE PHOTO: In this Nov. 19, 2018, file photo, police gather at the scene of a quadruple fatal shooting in Philadelphia. Philadelphia's homicide rate is the highest in over a decade, as a particularly violent summer morphed into a deadly fall and the mayor declared gun violence a public health emergency.
The City of Philadelphia has reached a grim milestone, and could surpass the homicide toll of 2021 if things continue.
The City’s 300th homicide victim is an 18-year-old shot in West Philadelphia. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner admitted seeing the death toll hit 300 was “frustrating.”
“It is traumatic, not just for those directly affected, but for everybody who lives in the city, everybody who is indirectly affected,” he said. “We are all locally suffering through what is savage, heartbreaking, tragic. I mean, the fact that there are so many young people involved, and involved on both ends of the gun, is particularly heartbreaking.”
Emma Lee / WHYY
Police investigate a drive-by shooting in Germantown on Oct. 3, 2018. Four young men were shot. One died.
Krasner admits city residents are upset with the climbing homicide rate, which could exceed last year’s grim record of 562 killings.
“I do understand why people who are frightened and people who are concerned about their public safety rightly are frustrated with city leaders. But having said that, I don’t think it’s fair to say that our police commissioner is doing nothing. I think our police commissioner is doing a lot, and I think our police commissioner is doing a lot with our office after she came up with some ideas and we came up with some ideas, and we will continue to do that.”
Krasner said a good sign is that money is being spent on forensics, with $5 million in additional funding added in the most recent city budget. But that money is only a start. He said the city needs closer to $50 million to update labs and other tools forensic scientists need to solve hundreds of murders.
While the number of homicides continues to climb, Krasner said everyone is working on the situation, including Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and other city officials, with a unified goal and hopes that the violence can be slowed down as soon as possible.
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