Another violent weekend in the county
It was not a good weekend in Delaware County.
And nowhere was that more in evidence than in the city of Chester.
In a city that deals with more than its share of random street violence and gun problems, this weekend seemed over the edge.
Police are investigating no fewer than five shootings that sent a half a dozen people to the hospital.
Thankfully, none of the shootings was fatal. That has unfortunately not always been the case. There have been 26 homicides in Delaware County so far in 2017. Of those, 22 have occurred on the streets of Chester.
How bad was it this weekend? At one point a bullet was fired into a SEPTA bus. No one on the bus was injured.
The overwhelmed staff at Crozer Chester Medical Center instituted a Code Orange to deal with the wave of gun victims.
So much for Operation Safe Streets.
Remember the press conference back in the first week of May when county and Chester officials rolled out a new plan to get ahead of the violence that always seems to see an uptick during the summer months in the city?
It followed a particularly violent spree in the city. The District Attorney’s office announced that state police would be added to ensure that all shifts were covered and an increased police presence would be seen on city streets, something residents told officials in plain language they wanted.
A woman had been hit by a stray bullet while inside her house. At one point there were five people wounded by gunfire in the city, while the city’s streets were being patrolled by the same number of police officers – and then only because one officer decided to come in on overtime.
District Attorney Jack Whelan announced he would use $100,000 in casino revenue to pay for the use of state troopers to beef up the police presence on city streets with state troopers.
That was back in May. Almost three months later, much the same thing played out on the streets of the city this weekend. Six people shot in five different locations in a 26-hour period.
In one incident Saturday night, three people were shot when gunfire erupted at 10th and Tilghman streets in the city.
Crozer Chester Medical Center was swamped. At one point as a wave of gunshot victims arrived at the hospital Saturday night – some by ambulance and others arriving on their own – they declared a Code Orange, allowing them to utilize staff from other parts of the hospital to join the ER staff as trauma team focused on the most serious injuries.
Operation Safe Streets was more than just adding state troopers. It was a multi-tiered approach to fighting crime in the city, in particular gun violence, and included the county’s Criminal Investigation Division Gun Trafficking Unit, the Chester Police Department, Delaware County Probation and Parole, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, and representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
None of it has stopped the guns. Nor the violence.
Police are once again asking for the public’s help in identifying those responsible for the violence.
It’s not the first time. Back in May Whelan unveiled a new $2,500 reward program for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone possessing illegal guns, which he said accounts for 90 percent of crime in the city.
It’s also not the first time state troopers have been added to city patrols. The same tactic was used back in 2014.
The problem certainly is not limited to Chester.
In Colwyn, police continue to hunt for the gunman who shot three people Friday night, killing two of them.
Then a few hours later, a person was fatally stabbed about a block away in Darby Borough.
But the problem is most persistent in Chester, where too many city residents indicate they are prisoners in their own homes, where random street gunfire has become part of the nightly routine in the city.
There are too many guns in Chester, in the hands of people who should not have them.
Stopping the flow of guns have proved almost as elusive to authorities as the violence that continues to chip away at city life. The two go hand in hand.
The answer to the violence in Chester most likely is not going to come from state police, or from county officials.
It’s going to come from citizens who put down their guns, or alert authorities to those who have them.
Individuals can call city police at 610-447-7908, or the D.A.’s Gun Task Force at 610-891-4197.