Child is wounded by gunfire in McKees Rocks

Residents say they hear gunshots daily

The bullets hissed through the tree leaves — pfft pfft pfft — and then the 8- year- old boy shouted that he’d been hit.

The boy ran into his grandmother’s home at the Hays Manor apartment complex in McKees Rocks suffering a graze wound to his leg, just a scratch really — it barely bled.

Outside, a 17- year- old boy was shot in the arm. A bystander tied a tourniquet around the wound until an ambulance arrived, witnesses said. They said the shooter aimed into the apartment complex from down the street, firing indiscriminately in two short bursts.

The shooting happened around 9: 30 p. m. Tuesday in the 400 block of Locust Street during a family barbecue. On Wednesday, three charred hot dogs still sat abandoned on a charcoal grill, and the boy’s grandmother, Inez Lucky, 51, sat on her front porch nearby and talked about the violence with a few relatives and friends.

The group both lamented the attack and brushed it off. Above all, they were thankful that the 8- year- old boy was alive, that he’d be able to start second grade on Thursday.

“I’m tired of it, I’m tired of seeing it,” Ms. Lucky said of the violence.

She has lived in the public housing complex for 17 years, long enough that shootings have become normal.

“You get so used to it,” she said. “They just need to put these guns down.”

A man in the group, who declined to give his name, said Tuesday’s shooting was nothing noteworthy.

“It’s every project, every

day,” he said. “Ain’t nobody going to stop the violence. This is an everyday thing. As long as no kids are dying, ain’t nobody stressing ... we went right back to normal.”

Another man on Ms. Lucky’s porch, who identified himself only as the 8year- old boy’s cousin, said he was constantly on guard.

“We look at every car that comes down the street like, ‘ Are you gonna shoot?’ ” he said. “These kids don’t care about who they shoot.”

He said young men should fight instead of reaching for a gun.

“If you lose a fight, at least you live the next day,” he said. “We just want the violence to stop.”

Police had not made an arrest in the shooting by Wednesday evening and said a motive was not immediately clear.

Ms. Lucky said she doesn’t think the shootings will stop anytime soon, even if police catch the suspect.

“It’s not going to stop,” she said. “That’s life.”