East Mount Airy residents raise safety concerns after Charles M. Finley Recreation Center triple shooting

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Residents, community leaders and city officials gathered in a packed room at the Charles M. Finley Recreation Center in East Mount Airy to raise concerns and find solutions to the gun violence among Philadelphia’s youth.

Councilmember Anthony Phillips convened the emergency meeting in response to a shooting Saturday night at the center. It happened hours after Phillips hosted a Women’s History Month program there. Police said three young people were injured when the suspect shot into a crowd of people outside the center.

“Those who come into our neighborhood are going to learn tonight we do not tolerate any nonsense like this,” Phillips told WHYY News.

There have been two separate shootings at recreational centers in the past two days, according to police — places where kids and families often go to have fun and feel safe. During Tuesday’s meeting, a teenager was shot about 10 minutes away, at the Lonnie Young Recreation Center.

“We want to be able to let our neighbors know that we’re going to preserve the safety and actually the dignity of their neighborhood by bringing more city resources,” Phillips said. “But also letting them know that we’re going to be doing some healing as well as listening to them for more solutions so things like this don’t happen.”

Fred Doughty has lived in East Mount Airy for 22 years. Speaking after the meeting, he said solving the gun violence problem will require everyone, especially parents, to work together because the police alone can’t handle it all, and the city isn’t able to solve it by itself.

“This is the first time that something tragic has happened,” Doughty said. “We’re very concerned about not only what’s going on in East Mount Airy, but what’s going on all over the city. It’s very alarming.”

Doughty said he’s worried about the safety of his 17-year-old daughter when she leaves the house.

“Just knowing that every time my daughter goes out, I worry now if that’s the last time I’ll see her or if I’ll get a phone call,” Doughty said. “You never know what these children are doing, even when I check her location.”

Theresa Williams told WHYY News that the neighborhood has changed in the 46 years she’s lived there. That’s why she came to Tuesday’s meeting to find out how city officials will make it better.

“The kids are wild. They have no respect and they’re coming into your homes if they can,” Williams said. “It’s good to have meetings because we need them because people don’t speak up and so much is going on.”

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said his  department will beef up operations and  increase police presence in and around recreation centers, conducting hourly checks and communicating with staff on a consistent basis. He told WHYY News that he wants to send a message.

“I want young people to understand the impact they have on others, particularly here. You see all of these mothers and dads and community members here who are traumatized by what happened and they’re not here,” Bethel said. “And so they often have to understand every time they engage in this type of behavior, there’s downstream impacts to our community.”

Bethel said as the summer heats up, it will be an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the crime down.

“We gotta keep working to reduce the level of violence, taking these guns off the street and getting people to grab these young boys and young girls and tell them they need to put these guns down,” Bethel said.

Sonya Kearney, another resident, agrees. She said she strongly believes that people need to continue taking actions and voicing their concerns.

“After this meeting, we need to have another one and a follow-up and someone needs to be in charge,” Kearney said. “I feel like often folks within the community drop the ball and sometimes, honestly, the politicians are on one page. It needs to be a continued consistent discussion.”