15-year-old shot at North Philadelphia recreation center where city officials last week touted new security cameras

A week after city officials held a media event at a North Philadelphia recreation center to tout new surveillance cameras to improve safety for children, police said a 15-year-old boy was shot in the center’s playground area Wednesday afternoon.

Just before 4:15 p.m. at the Marie Dendy Recreation Center along 10th Street between Jefferson and Oxford Streets, the teen was shot in the back, police said. He was taken by medics to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where he was listed in stable condition.

Investigators reviewing video from the new cameras saw that an unidentified assailant rode up on a bicycle in the playground area and began firing at the victim, police said. A gun was recovered at the scene.

Evidence markers were placed next to the playground equipment where the shots were fired.

Last Wednesday, city officials held a news conference at the recreation center to announce that 100 surveillance cameras were being installed at or around 14 recreation centers.

The locations were dubbed “Safe Play Zone” camera sites and were selected by police based on crime data.

The Marie Dendy center was picked to have 11 cameras, city officials said.

According to the Parks and Recreation Department, nearly 300 incidents of gun violence have taken place around recreation centers and playgrounds since 2019.

In May 2021, a 19-year-old woman was shot at the playground next to Dendy Recreation Center. The woman survived but no arrest was made.