According to Philadelphia Police, the city hasn't had a murder rate this high since 2007. 2018 is on pace to be another bad year, with two more killings just over the weekend.

As of Friday, December 14, Philadelphia marks 326 homicides, and that's up 9 percent over 2017 and the highest since 2007. Through December 9, police report more than 13,400 violent crimes.

The homicide rate is raising eyebrows, as there is one homicide approximately every 26 hours, or almost one a day.

Gun violence victims came together on the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that took the lives of 26 first-graders and teachers, many with their own harrowing gun stories. Some with more than one.

"On December 4, 2018, there was a shooting at 2400 Furly Street, exactly 115 steps from my apartment door," said Brandon Robbins.

One of three violent gun-involved incidents near him, he said, just since Halloween.


Roz Pichardo lost her brother and sister to gun violence.

"As a survivor of an attempted homicide, I continue to fight hard," Pichardo said.

10th grader Simone Ackridge lost an uncle and a friend.

"When I was six, I lost two people I cared about. They were shot dead a couple of blocks away from home," Ackridge stated.

There is also frustration not just over the high number of homicides, but at the high number of unsolved cases. Pichardo's brother was murdered in 2012 and that remains an unsolved case.

