Philly Community Calling For Change After 14-Year-Old Is Gunned Down
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)-- Philadelphia police are investigating after a 14-year-old is gunned down on Monday night.
It is just the latest deadly violence in the city's Kensington section.
Over the weekend, two people were shot and killed in their home along East Clearfield Street and one person was stabbed to death along Frankford Avenue.
In total, four homicides in Kensington, in just three days.
"It's just terrible; every time I turn on the news it's something happening to someone in Kensington. All this shooting and killing," said Lisa Bridges of Kensington.
14-Year-Old Killed, 16-Year-Old Injured In Kensington Shooting
"This part of the city is in desperate need of some kind of intervention," said Rosalind Pichardo.
Pichardo lives in this neighborhood, close enough to see the lights and sirens at each of the latest homicide scenes.
She runs "Operation Save Our City" a non-profit started after he brother, Alexander Martinez, was murdered in Kensington in 2012.
"You can solve a problem without picking up a gun. You can solve a problem without robbing somebody and taking their life," said Pichardo.
Part of what she does is to go into the most violent neighborhoods, neighborhoods wrapped with crime scene tape, and tries to teach anyone willing to listen about better conflict resolution.
As a Kensington native, Pichardo feels it's going to take more people from within the community, stepping up to end the violence here.
"It takes people who live this life, to teach them there is a way out, even if you still live in Kensington," said Pichardo.
