Shannon McDonald
Archive for October 2007
Swingset homicides
By Shannon McDonald | Oct. 16, 2007| The Temple News
Seven shootings have occurred at Philadelphia recreation centers since January, leaving four dead and community members searching for answers.
“It’s senseless,” said Victor Richard. “It’s total disrespect for human life.” Richard is the commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Recreation, and like everyone else, he is outraged that crime has penetrated the city’s safest havens. The four dead victims of these shootings are predictably young; three were only teenagers.
One of the surviving victims is 18-month-old Mehkee Gatewood, who suffered two gunshot wounds while at E.R. Tustin Playground in West Philadelphia in late September.
Something needs to be done.
Campus violence finds a match on North Broad Street
By Shannon McDonald | Oct. 9, 2007 | The Temple News
There hasn’t been a murder on or around Main Campus since 2005. Considering the high crime rates in the surrounding neighborhood, one murder in the course of three years is something to be happy about.
“Direct patrol is the best way to control crime,” said Charles Leone, deputy director of Campus Police.
There is no doubt the heavy police presence around campus is what keeps the crime rate so low. Campus Police not only patrol the central campus, but off-campus locations as well, monitoring the places students visit the most, and keeping their eyes on places where crimes occur most frequently.
In 2005, a stray bullet struck someone unaffiliated with Temple at 15th and Susquehanna streets. The victim lived. That same year, a Temple student was shot in his off-campus apartment after he got involved in a troubled lifestyle. That victim was not as fortunate.
Though these incidents may have hit close to home for some Temple students, the sense of security around campus remained intact because neither shooting was directly related to the school, and neither took place in the central part of campus.
