Man Shot Dead While Clutching Dog's Leash

Philadelphia police said a man walking his dog was shot and killed in the Kensington section of the city early Wednesday morning.

Police said when they found him lying on the sidewalk at Frankford Avenue and Atlantic Street around midnight, he was still holding onto his dog’s leash. The dog was unharmed and still attached.

Neighbors said the man, who they recognized, was shot several times by two other men who pulled up in a red car and fired 36 shots. But there’s been no sign of them since.

The man, 23-year-old Markeem McLeod of Tioga-Nicetown, died at the hospital, Philadelphia police said.

A bullet also pierced the bedroom window of a nearby home, police said, but no one inside was hurt.

And in South Philadelphia overnight, police said a robbery at a takeout restaurant ended with two customers being shot.

Police said they were called out to 9^th and Washington streets around 11 p.m. Tuesday night.

Officers said three men robbed the restaurant while it was filled with people eating, and one of them fired a bullet that hit two of the customers.

The victims were both hit in the limbs and are in stable condition, police said.

Small said as of early Wednesday morning there were no arrests in either case.

Entering Wednesday, there had been at least 188 homicides so far this year in Philadelphia. That's down 9% from the same time last year, which wound up being the deadliest on record in Philadelphia. However, the to-date homicide count was higher at this point than in any other of the past 15 years besides 2021.