After 2 shootings in 1 weekend, South Side residents frustrated with violence
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The South Side community is on edge after two shootings on East Carson Street left three people in critical condition over the weekend.
Early Sunday morning, Pittsburgh police say officers ran towards the sound of gunfire on the 1500 block of East Carson Street.
During an exchange of gunfire, police said two men were shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition.
They're hoping that cameras in the area will help them detail the specifics of what happened.
This is a story all too familiar for one neighbor who lives between two of the latest shootings on East Carson Street.
"We were told something was gonna happen after last summer and all the violence," said Jackie, a concerned neighbor. "We continue to be told things are going to change and we don't see any action."
Jackie didn't want to show her face but says neighbors who actually live on the South Side are growing more tired and more concerned every day with the lack of tangible evidence that things are changing for the better.
She believes that one of the problems isn't the residents who live there but bad individuals who get carried away on the weekends.
"I don't know the solution, but I think that the South Side council, the mayor's office, the police all need to come together and talk about the problem here," she told KDKA. "There's clubs and bars that seem to be the root of the issue and that needs to be addressed."
City Councilman Bruce Kraus believes a community touch is needed too instead of just beefing up police.
"Can't police your way out of this problem," said Kraus. "It comes to leadership to be effective planners and managers to preemptive and proactive and not reactive. "
After the Saturday shooting at Cambod-Ican kitchen and the Sunday shootout on 15th Street, if nothing changes soon, Jackie says she, her husband and daughter, along with other neighbors, will be moving out of the area very soon.
"We don't have a violent community, we have violence coming into our community and that's what needs to change," she said. "We really wish we didn't have to make the choices to actually have to leave the South Side to enjoy a day in the city."
Community members said they understand a solution is hard to find, but it's necessary for all the lives at stake.
Pittsburgh police said this investigation is ongoing.
