PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 15-year-old boy was shot in the arm Wednesday afternoon in Southwest Philly just hours after elected officials rallied against gun violence a few blocks away. This comes a week after another shooting across from an elementary school in the area left one dead and three others injured. Leaders and neighbors say enough is enough.
Wednesday afternoon, the scene outside of Mitchell Elementary School was much more peaceful. Kids from the neighborhood were enjoying water ice, pretzels, and music at a rally to call out gun violence, organized by city leaders, the school community, and police.
Then Andrea Custis, of the Urban League of Philadelphia, galvanized the crowd with a fiery speech, saying not another teen should be hurt or injured in the area from gun violence.
“Are you going to speak up and speak out and demand that your community is safe?” she asked.
The crowd responded yes.
Hours later, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the arm just blocks away from the school while riding his bike.
"Welcoming students back into school [six weeks ago] was the most joy we have felt in a year and a half," Principal Stephanie Andrewlevich said at the mic during the rally. However, she said, parents being afraid to send their kids to school because of the epidemic of gun violence was unacceptable.
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"So many systematic things need to be put in place to help those who are hurt. People who do harm have been harmed. What can we do to rally together to support all of our students, everyone who needs that level of support?” she said.
Andrewlevich says gun violence in the area is interfering with her students' ability to learn, to live, and to be kids.
Many elected officials, including City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, State Sen. Anthony Williams, and state Reps. Joanna McClinton, Rick Krajewski Jordan Harris, also took to the mic, committing to bring more resources to the area.
"Now in the midst of budget season, my highest priority is making sure that we direct substantial resources to the things that will get young people to not pick up guns in the first place," Gauthier said.
"We need to be making investments in things like street outreach that can help young people to deal with conflicts; community-based, evidence-based violence-prevention programs; hospital-based intervention, trauma center and healing justice centers."
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Harris said enough is enough.
"I'm here because I want everybody to know that we know that this is not normal. We're not accepting this. We're not going to allow people to paint a picture of our community as if this is accepted in our community," Harris said.
"Our community is struggling for resources like other places are. What we're fighting for is for resources. It's not normal, and we want everybody else know that it's not normal."
Phyllis Walker, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, said the community should not have to fight so hard for those resources.
"The only time we get resources is when we write letters or when we fight," Walker said.
Williams said an information fair organized around employment, training, COVID-19 testing and other community needs, will be set up right at the school.
"We need to knock on these doors," he said. "We have a serious mental health issue, a serious resource issue, a serious unemployment issue, a serious education issue and there are people waiting in those houses for us to connect with them. We’re gonna come back and we’re gonna knock on all the doors in the 10th division.”
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Many also agreed that progress and solutions would be a long-haul, that would have to include collaboration with everyone, including police.
"You now have a car that’s assigned to this area to prevent violence. Over the past nine months or so, we’ve arrested over two-dozen people with guns in that area," said Capt. Scott Drissel. "It’s not just one incident; it's a continuation of incidents, and we need to stand up and say that this is not acceptable in our community."
More than two-dozen young people under the age of 18 have been shot in the larger West and Southwest Philadelphia neighborhoods this year, according to the city. Seven of those children died from their injuries.