PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than 125 kids have been shot in Philadelphia. Two dozen of them have died.
But the survivors will live with the trauma forever, as one man who was shot as a child powerfully conveyed. He believes that the city of Philadelphia isn't doing enough to stop the bloodshed.
On April 3, 2000, 10-year-old Oronde McClain was walking home from a restaurant in West Oak Lane when he heard a barrage of bullets.
He then felt something hot strike the back of his head.
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"My whole body was hot and burning. I started to take my clothes off. I didn’t know there was a pool of blood all over," McClain said.
"Two police officers were there when I got shot, scooped me up and took me to Einstein hospital where I died for two minutes and 17 seconds."
Doctors revived him.
"I was in a coma for seven weeks. I couldn’t walk, talk," he said. "I was in a wheelchair for two years."
After 12 years in and out of physical therapy, scars from that day still linger.
"I have PTSD. I cannot stand firecrackers. When I see on the news when a child gets shot, I feel like it’s me, and I just start crying," he shared.
"Closed doors, because (a nearby) store closed the door on me when I was trying to get in, closed doors make me nervous."
McClain overcame it all and went to college. He started a non-profit in his name, and now works as a therapist for children who have been traumatized by shootings.
McClain has been going to each of the press conferences throughout the city to speak with leaders, and he protests the gun violence after shootings with other men in the community. He calls on city leaders to step up.
"The (district attorney), they are not doing anything and it’s a shame. Like they should talk to the victims, but they talk amongst themselves (rather) than trying to figure it out. But if they talked to the victims, I think it could progress, but they don’t do that at all," he said.
"I want them out in the community, talking to victims, talking to the neighbors, not sitting in their office. Because we’re not protected at all."
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