Teenager, tot shot in Kensington

Kensington neighbors vented frustration last night after a double shooting left a toddler hospitalized and his 17-year-old uncle declared brain-dead.

Maria Gonzalez, a neighbor who lives on the block of Orleans Street where the shooting took place, struggled to hold back tears while she smoked a cigarette on the stoop of an abandoned, two-story brick rowhouse near the scene.

Gonzalez said it was shameful that neighborhood children don't have safe places to play. She yelled at her children to stay inside the house when she noticed them gathering in an open doorway.

"We can't sit outside with them or without them," she said, jumping at the cracking sound of a piece of plastic breaking in the street from a police cruiser that drove over it. "You don't want to live here."

Shots rang out about 4:10 p.m. on Orleans Street near Amber, hitting the teen in the face and the toddler, 23 months old, in the left shoulder.

Police said the bullet traveled through the toddler's chest but missed major organs. Detectives said the boy will be 2 in less than two weeks.

The teen was taken to Temple University Hospital; the tot was taken to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and listed in stable condition.

Neither victim was identified last night.

Family members of the toddler were gathered across the street from the hospital last night, but declined to comment.

Police were still on the scene late into the evening, and could not yet elaborate on what may have led to the shooting.

Detectives said that the car in which the suspect fled the scene may have been a green or black vehicle - possibly a Honda Odyssey - carrying up to four people.

Police said the car may have fled on Bellmore Avenue toward Frankford.

Anyone with information on the shootings can call East Detectives at 215- 686-3243.