Bullets are now flying uncomfortably close to home.
Can't bear it: It's tough to imagine any future for
This just in.
Gun violence in Philadelphia is out of control.
Forget Nashay Little. Forget Tykeem Law. Forget that grandma sitting on the step. Forget that guy standing in his bedroom getting dressed for work. Forget the 11 people murdered that one weekend. Forget the 344 and counting killed so far this year. Forget Dateline and CNN. Forget the City of Brotherly Love turned murder capital renamed Killadelphia.
Apparently the siege started last week when gun violence escaped from its normal black-on-black, not-in-my-neighborhood, why-should-I-give-a-damn isolation into something unimaginable, something that gets cops shot and endangers the sanctity of the island of Center City.
It started last Sunday around 2 a.m., closing time, at University City nightclub Koko Bongo, where hundreds poured into the street, and cops maintained crowd control.
At some point 21-year-old Lamarr Bembry pulled out his 9 mm and opened fire on police officers.
"There is no motive other than they didn't want to move out of the street," says police spokesperson Lt. Frank Vanore of Bembry and his friends.
One bullet hit police officer Sandra Van Hinkle, on the job 10 years, in the leg. Hinkle would be the first of three Philadelphia police officers shot in four days.
Outside the club police would later recover two guns and 25 shell casings. They're still investigating, looking for the other shooters.
A man sitting in his car was caught in the crossfire. He was shot in the shoulder and face.
Police shot Bembry once in the chest. He was pronounced dead around 4 a.m.
This wasn't Bembry's first clash with cops and guns.
About two years ago, after getting a call about a man with a gun, two police officers observed, stopped and frisked Bembry at a Center City jewelry store. He had a loaded .38 in his front pants pocket.
Bembry, a former convict, was arrested and charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor for carrying a firearm without a license.
Seven months later, after a series of trial motions, Bembry pleaded guilty. Nine months later he was sentenced to six to 23 months of house arrest, 20 hours of community service, four years of probation and court costs of $237. Unemployed, he was ordered to maintain employment. He was also ordered to surrender his firearm and to never own another.
Back in 2005 I sat in the city's newly touted gun court, shocked by the number of defendants given probation over jail time.
Bootlegging movies carries stiffer penalties.
"If they give them stiffer sentences, it would be a deterrent," says Lt. Vanore of those caught with illegal guns. "We need stiffer penalties."
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1. marissa said... on May 12, 2008 at 12:55PM
“I'm only 12 years old but i know well enough that we've got and had a gun problem in this city since i was even littler than i am today. I can't have much of a teenage experience because my mom's always afraid I'll get raped or shot. Is there any help we can get in the little neighborhoods? because it's time we get some!”