A 40-year-old man is facing five murder charges after he shot victims at random at Independence Day celebrations in a working class neighborhood of Philadelphia on Monday.

Despite law enforcement refusing to officially name the suspect, Republican lawmakers and members of the far-right are already falsely claiming the suspect is transgender, and are using this as part of their broader attack on the LGBTQ+ community.

Police responded to shots fired in the Kingsessing area of the city around 8:30p.m. on Monday evening. The heavily armed suspect shot and killed a 31-year-old man inside his home before randomly shooting four more victims aged between 15 and 59 on the streets. Two other victims, aged 2 and 13, suffered from gunshot wounds to the leg and are in a stable condition in hospital, police said.

Police chased the suspect and he was arrested in an alley. Police found an AR-style assault rifle, a pistol, extra magazines, a police scanner, and a bulletproof vest on the suspect.

“On what was supposed to be a beautiful summer evening, this armed and armored individual wreaked havoc, firing with a rifle at their victims seemingly at random,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Tuesday afternoon. Police say the shooter acted alone, and they have found no motive for the attack so far.

While police refused to name the suspect during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon and didn’t respond to VICE News’ request for confirmation of the shooter’s name, ...

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