August started off with a bang when gunfire erupted in the parking lot of a busy shopping center in the Hill District.
Despite conflicting reports from residents and workers, one thing is for certain—there are some in the community who are brazen enough to stage a shootout in broad daylight in front of dozens of bystanders.
“It could have been much worse,” said Diane Richard, public information officer in the police chief’s office. “It was the first of the month and lots of seniors were cashing their Social Security checks.”
Workers in the Triangle Square plaza on Centre Avenue across from the Hill House agree.
“There were little children all around,” said one worker who requested anonymity. “I’ve been here 12 years and never saw anything like this!”
According to police reports, witnesses said three to five shots were fired from a van driving through the lot in the 1600 block of Centre Avenue, sending several shoppers fleeing into stores to escape.
When the shooting started, a teenager was shot in the leg, collapsed and rolled under a parked SUV for cover. The van drove away.
At that point, bystanders said they tried to reach 911 and couldn’t get through. Another ran to the District 2 police station to get assistance. In the meantime, someone helped the boy into a taxi that had just dropped off a fare at the plaza, and the taxi took the boy to UPMC Mercy.
The mall worker also complained about the response time of the police. “It’s not like they were blocks away, they’re just up the street.”
The District 2 precinct is less than half a block away at the corner of Centre and Dinwiddie, within walking distance of the scene of the shooting.
Richard empathizes with the concerns of the bystanders. “When you’re a bystander at the scene of a crime, time seems to move slow,” she said.
Although she was not aware of the problem with the 911 call, Richard did say that the average response time is about 10 minutes, and that once a 911 call is concluded, a central dispatch notifies officers on patrol who are usually the first on the scene to assess the safe accessibility for EMS responders, which is standard protocol.
A handgun was found at the center, which is across the street from the Hill House.
Marvin Prentice, senior vice president and chief operating office for Hill House, said the incident across the street put an exclamation mark on their plans to enhance the building’s security system, which was already in the works before the shots rang out.
No new information on the status of the 17-year-old male who was shot in the leg was available at press time, nor were any arrests reported in the incident.
The mall worker perhaps summed up the situation best when she said, “No one is going to do anything unless we all step up.”
