PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The 8th and Diamond Playground was empty on Tuesday afternoon. In the heat of summer, there were no children playing in the sprinklers or running the basketball courts.
Chalk outlines, showing where bullet casings were found, remained on the playground athletic courts. Police say more than 50 bullets were used in the shooting.
Jamal Johnson, an activist with the nonprofit Stop Killing Us, who is known for hunger strikes and anti-violence marches, grew up around the corner from the playground where four young men were shot, three fatally, while playing basketball just before 6 p.m Friday.
Johnson said he believes the empty playground reflects an absence of city leadership and community presence.
“You know, we need to come out, stand up and stand out in our communities,” Johnson said.
Johnson said everyone needs to work together to solve the problem of violence.
“We all have a role to play,” Johnson said. “I think that if we come around here and give an example of us being present — if our political leaders and block captains, you know, if they all start appearing back on the block, possibly something like this won’t occur.”
He said if there had been a constant flow of people in the area at the time of the shooting, he thinks the gunmen would have thought twice about coming out there.
Terica, who declined to give her last name, lives across the street from the playground. She says she has watched the area become lawless, less protected and more dangerous — leaving kids in the neighborhood no place safe.
“Safety comes first for them kids. It’s at community centers. And it’s rough on the families, too, and the parents and people who live around there,” she said.
“The new generations, we need to step it up for them and put something in place.”
Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order last fall banning guns at Parks and Recreation buildings, pools, playgrounds and athletic courts and fields. At the time, he noted there had been nearly 300 incidents of gun violence at such facilities between 2019 and 2022.
Less than a week later, a Common Pleas Court judge blocked the city from enforcing the ban after a lobbying group based in Virginia filed a motion to request a permanent injunction.
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