'That's Not Something We Stand For:' Police Investigate Shooting Of 15-Year-Old In Uniontown
UNIONTOWN (KDKA) - A 15-year-old boy is in the hospital after he was shot in the head in Uniontown on Friday night.
"It was a beautiful evening, 8:00, still daylight out, lot of people still out on their porches and gunshots rang out," said Lieutenant Thomas Kolencik, Uniontown Police Department.
The Uniontown Police Department is investigating the shooting. Lt. Kolencik said they believe shots were fired between two parties in an alley off Cool Springs Street.
"It appears at this point that there was one or two people and then another maybe one or two people and there was an exchange of gunfire back and forth and ended up with a 15-year-old that was shot in the head," said Lt. Kolencik.
Police are still piecing together exactly what happened.
"He was involved in the gunfire exchange. Whether he actually had a weapon and was exchanging gunfire himself, that's not determined yet. That's still under investigation," said Lt. Kolencik.
Lt. Kolencik said they think this was an isolated incident.
The police department has received a lot of information and they hope to obtain video from nearby businesses and homes.
"We were getting a lot of information from bystanders, people on scene, vehicle descriptions, individual descriptions, physical descriptions," he said.
Lt. Kolencik said shootings in the city can be rare but when they do occur, the community steps up.
"It's not a common thing, that's not something that we stand for. That's not something that we're going to let happen and anytime we have something like this which isn't often, it's the community that comes forward and that's what happened last night," he said.
Police are confident they will make an arrest.
"Every time and I stress it, anytime someone is shot, our community comes together, especially when it's a child. So, we're confident," Lt. Kolencik said.
Lt. Kolencik said the victim had an operation overnight and his condition is unknown.
Police are asking residents to check their Ring and Nest cameras for any vehicles that drove by in the area Friday night.
If you have information about the shooting, you can call the police department anonymously.