UPDATE: Officials held a press conference at the scene Tuesday morning providing a additional details on the incident.
“What we know at this point is that there were individuals we believe all within the age range of 16-18 who came to the playground here from multiple municipalities to engage in a fight and then gun shots started to be fired by multiple individuals in the park” said Chief Tornielli.
Tornielli added that the fight was between anywhere from 15-30 people in the park, one house was struck by gunfire, and that the three victims transported to the hospital are expected to recover.
Reading Mayor Eddie Moran also made a call to action to bring the community together to prevent further violent crime in the city.
“I’m a father of a 21 year-old set of twins, and it scares me that whenever they want to go out get McDonalds I have to tell them go here and don’t go their because of the areas some of these locations might be in. We shouldn’t live like that folks. So it’s time for us to take back our community. Us as parents have a responsibility.”
Moran added “We have to educate our youth that there is a better way. I’m going to ask each and everyone of our community members, leaders, faith based organizations. Let’s sit down, Let’s talk, Let’s see what kind of pledge you can commit to, to battle this gun violence.”
Moran also said he, in conjunction with city council, will allocate a minimum of one million dollars from American Rescue Plan funding to use for youth programing and after school services.
Police are expected to release additional information Tuesday afternoon.
The Governor Mifflin School District also shared a message with community Tuesday morning: “Tragically, we were informed this morning by law enforcement that Governor Mifflin students were involved in a shooting last night, in which one student was fatally shot and another was admitted to the ICU. Please keep these students and their families in your thoughts today. That is all the information that has been made available to us at this time. We will provide more information as it becomes available.” Full statement: governormifflinsd.org
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Police have confirmed one person is dead and at least two others have been injured following a shooting at Brookline Park in Reading Monday night.
Police were dispatched to the 1300 block of Meade Street around 7:45pm for reports of a shooting with injures. Upon arrival, first responders found multiple victims near in the park and playground area.
A resident who lives nearby told us he heard 15-20 shots in rapid succession.
Reading Police Chief Richard Tornielli confirmed Monday night that one person died and that two others were transported to Reading Hospital with injuries. Tornielli also mentioned the possibility of a third victim involved, but is not sure if it is related.
Brookline Park is expected to be closed through Tuesday morning for the investigation. “We just want to make sure we don’t miss anything. So we are going to hold it till daylight to get a good view of everything” said Tornielli.
Tornielli also spoke on the location of the shooting. “We track where we typically see the shots fired incidents, shootings and are able to map them out pretty well to increase patrols in certain areas, but this area hasn’t come up at all. We haven’t had any intelligence that we would have problems over here. This is kinda out of nowhere.”
As of Monday night, no arrests have been made and the investigation is still ongoing. “Nobody in custody, we are still trying to confirm information from witnesses on a potential suspect. We have no descriptions at this point” said Tornielli.
The Reading Police Department encourages anyone with information relative to this incident to contact the Reading Police Criminal Investigations Division at 610-655- 6246 or Crime Alert Berks County 877-373-9913.
