After being shot close to a park in Chester, Pennsylvania, one person is dead and the other is healing in the hospital. 3While the Chester Panthers football team was still dispersing, there was an explosion of gunfire close to Memorial Park.
Greg Graves, the football organization’s president, claims he had merely left after practice ended but had come back to find everything in disarray.
“I wasn’t here when the initial shooting occurred, but I did pull up, and see the individual laid there on Engle Street,” Graves stated. “Our hearts go out to the family of the young man who didn’t make it. It’s really sad.”
The shooting, according to the police, took place on Monday night at 8:30 p.m.
When police arrived in the 700 block of Engle Street, they discovered two individuals, ages 17 and 18, had been shot and injured. For treatment, both were brought to Crozer Chester Medical Center.
The eighteen-year-old, who was struck several times, allegedly passed away in the hospital. The 17-year-old was shot in the leg once, and the hospital has classified him as stable at this time.
“This is an active investigation. I have my investigators, I have our crime scene, I have detectives from the criminal investigation unit. We have a full-court press on this right now. Hopefully, we want to bring this to justice as soon as possible,” Chester Police Commissioner Steven Gretzky stated.
Chester police were still investigating the incident and seeking to identify the perpetrator as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t want this to portray that this had something to do with the football program, because it didn’t. It had nothing to do with that, it’s an unfortunate situation. It’s senseless gun violence,” Commissioner Gretzky said.
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Now that the culprits are being sought after by investigators, community members are demanding more security. According to Geo Stockman, the lead interventionist with Gun Violence Intervention & Empowerment (GVINE), this shooting emphasizes the risks these young men encounter even when playing sports.
“The fact that it happened is tragic, but we’re still going to be here, even in more force and make sure it’s safe,” Stockman stated. “We find in our work we have a lack of father figures and male positive role models in these homes and in these young men’s lives. That’s what we are trying to provide.”
