Posted on August 25, 2011

500 Witnesses and No One Is Talking

Mike Newall, Philly, August 23, 2011

About 500 spectators were packed around the Kingsessing Recreation Center’s outdoor basketball court Monday night, cheering on an adult league playoff game.

Then, at halftime, a thug in a red and black baseball hat loped across the court and fired a .40-caliber handgun 11 times into the bleachers, wounding six people.

As of Tuesday afternoon, none of those 500 witnesses were saying much to police.

So at an afternoon news conference, Mayor Nutter, flanked by Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, and a dozen other police and city officials, stood on the still blood-spotted court and offered a $20,000 reward, imploring residents to come forward and identify the “coward” who shot up the game.

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“We will not tolerate this kind of insane, asinine, idiotic behavior at any of our facilities,” he said. “They are safe havens . . . they are off limits to this kind of heinous behavior. We will not stand for it.”

Of the gunman, Nutter said: “We’re going to find you’re little butt and lock you up.”

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About 8:50 p.m., one minute into halftime of an over-17 semifinal game, the shooter walked down a crowded ramp leading to the court, and opened fire on a crowd of people on the sidelines, police said. He hit five men and one woman, none of them players, between the ages of 18 and 23, and sent the large crowd of spectators running through the streets.

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Five of the victims were shot in the lower extremities, said Inspector Dennis Wilson of Southwest Detectives, and one man was shot in the stomach and in critical condition. The intended target was shot in the attack, Wilson said.

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The gunman, who is black and believed to be around 22 years old and about 5-9 and 150 pounds, escaped the court through a hole in a fence, police said.

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It is the second shooting at the recreation center this summer.

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That shooting was over drugs, police said, and not related to Monday’s shooting.

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