Stowe Township, McKees Rocks leaders seek answers to gun violence

STOWE TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - Youth gun violence has gripped the region and nowhere tighter than in Stowe Township and Mckees Rocks, the Ohio River Valley towns known as Sto-Rox.

Last year there were close to a dozen homicides there, and in just the past seven days, there have been two near-fatal shootings, leaving neighbors and town leaders looking for answers.

A 15-year-old boy is expected to survive after being shot in the chest at Ninth and Benwood in Stowe Township. It was the second near-fatal shooting in a week in a town where neighbors say gunplay is a nightly occurrence, forcing them inside.

"It's scary. My son is grown. I live alone. My neighbor downstairs, we all try to look out for each other," said Kim Moose.

"We just stay in the house. You hear the gunshots and you don't want to be victims, but it is concerning and something needs to be done," said Candy Scott.

But no one quite knows the answer. The two towns were the site of 11 homicides last year: six in McKees Rocks and five in Stowe. There have been two homicides in McKees Rocks already this year, but that doesn't reflect all of the non-fatal shootings that neighbors say have become commonplace.

The towns declined when industry left the Ohio Valley, and township supervisor Robin Parrilla says they've become a center of drug trafficking. Despite a shrinking tax base, in recent years Stowe doubled the size of its police force from six to eleven full-time officers.

"We've beefed up our police due to the fact that we're trying to make some hits on the drug dealers," Parrilla said. "That's a good thing, but it's not stopping the shootings. There are just too many guns."