Two killed, one hurt in Colwyn shooting spree
“I would urge the borough council to put more officers on the street. Colwyn needs obviously to have more officers on the street..” — Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan
COLWYN » A Southwest Philadelphia teen and a Darby Borough man are dead following what may have been a gang-related shooting Friday night at a corner hang out.
The names of the 16-yearold Philadelphia boy and the 20-year-old Darby man were not released Saturday pending notification of family and kin. A 15-yearold from Southwest Philadelphia who was shot in the arm was hospitalalized.
Police were searching for a suspect seen on surveillance video: An AfricanAmerican male with black hair and a black moustache and beard. At the time of the shootings, he was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans.
“We have some good video,” Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said. “It appears on video two groups of individuals were posturing themselves for an altercation.”
Around 10:42 p.m., borough police responded to a call for shots fired near South Fourth and Walnut streets. There, they found three males who had been shot. All three were transported to local hospitals for treatment, where two of the victims, the 16-year-old and the 20-year-old died. Allegedly, at least 10 shots had been fired.
The incident occurred about 15 minutes before the Pennsylvania State Police were to come on patrol in Colwyn. Borough officials had asked the state police to patrol its borders from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day to help with local staffing limitations.
Whelan said there was no correlation between the shooting and the arrival of the state police.
“I would urge the borough council to put more officers on the street,” Whelan said. “Colwyn needs obviously to have more officers on the street.”
Colwyn Borough Councilman Fred Lesher characterized the area of the shooting.
“They open up late and it’s a hangout,” he said. “It’s a hangout all night long.” Lesher said there had been attempts to get the hangout closed by 11 p.m. as some nights the crowds would get rowdy and result in neighbors calling the borough.
“That was the only bad corner in the neighborhood,” Lesher said. “I didn’t trust ... that all these outsiders were coming there 10 o’clock at night.”
A longtime resident of Colwyn, he said a double homicide there was rare.
“Never, never,” Lesher said. “It’s like everybody says when it happens, ‘It doesn’t happen in my neighborhood.’ Well, guess what, it happens everywhere now.”
Colwyn Borough Councilman Paul Meuser described the quarter-square mile town where he has lived for 61 years as secure.
“This is a very isolated incident,” he said. “This is a very safe community. We get along.”
Meuser added, however, that things change.
“It’s the times we live in these days,” he said. “I don’t like it but what are you going to do? It’s a shame.”
The district attorney said it’s unusual to have a homicide in Colwyn.
“If the council members and the police want to get together with us, we’re always willing to sit down and come up with a strategy to combat violence in any municipality, just like we did in Chester,” Whelan said. “I’m more than happy to meet with them and do that.”
He added that multiple detectives from the county’s Criminal Investigation Division were working on the investigation.
A spokesperson for the Delaware County District Attorney’s office said the initial investigation indicates the shooting may have involved a group of teenagers or young adults from southwest Philadelphia going into Colwyn. Police are investigating the possibility it involved rival groups.
Anyone with information about the identity or the location of the suspect is asked to call Colwyn Police Chief Bryan Hills at 484-494-4900 or Delaware County’s Criminal Investigation Division at 610-8914861.
Police from the Pennsylvania State Police and Darby Borough are also assisting.
The deaths mark the 24th and 25th homicides in Delaware County to date and are the first in Colwyn this year.
There was also a stabbing a block away Saturday morning in the 100 block of South Fifth Street but officials were uncertain if it was related to the shootings.