PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 15-year-old boy was shot and injured outside a North Philadelphia recreation center, a week after the city installed security cameras to create a wider “safe play zone.”
Shortly after 4 p.m. at Dendy Recreation Center, at 10th and Oxford streets, police said a teen suspect rode up on a bicycle and shot the teen.
He was hit in the right side of his back and taken to the hospital, where he's currently in stable condition.
Police recovered the weapon. No one has been arrested at this time.
This is the very same recreation center where, exactly one week ago, city officials gathered to witness the installation of security cameras just outside the center’s perimeter to create a wider “safe play zone” around the property.
Dendy is one of 14 city recreation centers, chosen based on police crime data, where 100 of these perimeter cameras have been distributed in a long-delayed effort to improve public safety around recreation areas.
“For something like this to happen today, it’s just mind boggling. You wonder, what can you do?” said City Council President Darrell Clarke, who was at the scene.
He said police regularly patrol that area. The cameras provide a real-time feed, and they captured surveillance footage of the suspect, who allegedly fled after the shooting.
Brett Bessler, who represents rec center supervisors in the AFSCME DC47 Local 2186 labor union, said cameras aren’t enough.
“They definitely assist in solving the crimes, figuring out what happened. But they’re not really preventing anything from happening,” he said. “That’s why we need more boots on the ground. We need to have more staff at our rec centers, more security guards, social workers, recreational therapists.”
The City of Philadelphia offers a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction for any shooting near a rec center or school.
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