Community meeting to be held as crime rises in Tacony
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Safety is top of mind in Philadelphia's Tacony and Mayfair neighborhoods following a quadruple shooting and a shooting of a beloved gas station clerk this month.
CBS Philadelphia took a look at crime statistics following the shooting death of Siboram Patro, a beloved gas station attendant earlier this week, and the numbers show crime is on the rise in Tacony.
On Thursday night, residents in Tacony and Mayfair and the 15th Police District will come together for a community safety meeting. Neighbors said they're working to "take back their community." This meeting is the first step of many.
A makeshift memorial now sits on the corner of Tacony Exxon station. It's for a beloved gas station attendant, who Philadelphia police say was shot and killed during an armed robbery Tuesday.
"Common citizens on the block feel they can't go to the store," Joe Nicoletti, the president of the Tacony-Holmesburg Town Watch, said. "They feel they're going to be robbed, carjacked, stabbed, shot and they just stay in their house. That's no way to live."
Clerks inside Galati Brothers Services Station wouldn't go on camera but say security measures have changed since the tragedy.
They no longer open overnight and are considering hiring outside security.
"A lot of people I talk to want to move," Nicoletti said. "They've had it. They're ready to put their house up for sale and move."
Data from Philadelphia police shows crime in Tacony is on the rise. In 2022, armed robbery incidents more than doubled from the previous year.
"It has to be an all-hands approach to this problem," Nicoletti said. "It's not going to be solved by one thing, it's going to be solved by many things."
One of the first steps of getting involved is through a community safety meeting in the city's 15th Police District at Roosevelt Park.
"You come, you share, you listen because that lieutenant who runs that meeting helps to develop a safety activity for that particular community," Anthony Murphy said.
Nicoletti said it's going to take everyone from police to neighbors to elected officials to curb crime.
"Instead of getting involved when something happens, get involved before it happens," Murphy said.
On Sunday, a vigil will be held for Patro. It'll be held at the Exxon station where he worked on Torresdale Avenue near Friendship Street.