Kenney visits Southwest Philly in wake of Father’s Day shooting

Joined by antiviolence outreach workers, Mayor Jim Kenney took a walking tour Saturday evening in Southwest Philadelphia to demonstrate the city’s support after the Father’s Day shooting that left one man dead and five others injured.

Kenney walked for about 25 minutes along Woodland Avenue speaking briefly to business owners and just about anyone outside enjoying the pleasant weather. It was a small spectacle with TV cameras and bicycle cops circling the mayor as he strolled from store front to store front.

If anyone complained about feeling unsafe in the neighborhood, they did so quietly. For the most part, Kenney was greeted by enthusiastic requests for selfies, invitations to eat in the many West African restaurants, and a few declarations that he is the “best mayor!”

Afterward, Kenney said it was important to show residents that “we have their back," especially after the recent rash of gun violence that he called “very depressing and frustrating.”

Last Saturday and Sunday, 28 people were shot — five fatally — in 19 incidents across the city.

On Father’s Day, dozens of people from the West African community in Southwest Philadelphia were at the James Finnegan Playground celebrating recent high school graduations when gunfire erupted shortly after 10 p.m.

Police said the perpetrator shot indiscriminately into the crowd.

Isiaka Meite, 24, was hit once in the back. He was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about a half hour later. The other victims included four teens and a 24-year-old man.

Kenney said he wanted “to make sure that people in this community and other communities know that the government cares about what’s going on and wants to try to stop it.”

The mayor was accompanied by outreach responders from the Community Crisis Intervention Team, a privately run initiative that receives city funds. He was briefed at the 12th District station on Woodland Avenue by Police Commissioner Richard Ross before he began his tour. Along the way, outreach responders described their efforts to the mayor.

George Mosee, executive director of the Philadelphia Anti-Drug Anti-Violence Network, which started the program last year, said the responders were “credible messengers” because they come from the neighborhoods and also offer the people they contact opportunities for jobs and education. The responders hit the streets from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. from Thursday through Sunday.

“The vast majority of the people in these neighborhoods want peace,” Mosee said. “The vast majority of the young people who may be on the verge of making the wrong decision would thoroughly embrace an alternative if one is presented. so the [outreach responders] don’t come out empty-handed.”