RANKIN, Pa. — Activists in the Woodland Hills area are calling on community members to step up – and for the reopening of a shuttered community center – after two teenagers were shot in an ambush-style attack in the middle of Rankin Saturday, just steps from the borough’s police department.
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Allegheny County investigators said the teenagers were attacked by four masked gunmen, who witnesses say drove up in a dark car and fled after the shooting.
The teenagers, who have not been identified, are expected to survive. Neighbors said one of them used crutches to get around before the shooting.
“I was telling him, you know, just breathe and stuff,” a woman who aided the victims and who didn’t want to be identified said.
Monday, few people were seen walking around that section of Rankin, and several parents said they were keeping their children inside for safety.
Police did not provide updates on the case Monday and so far have not announced any arrests.
Anti-violence advocates said six teenagers and juveniles had been shot in the Woodland Hills School District service area since the beginning of June.
“This moment requires courage, collaboration, and accountability from every sector of our community,” Cathy Jo Welsh, who lost her own child to gun violence in 2017, wrote. “We owe our children more than conversations after another shooting. We owe them action before the next one.”
Community members also called for the reopening of the Woodland Hills Impact Center, which closed this month after the school district failed to fund it.
“The kids are outside, running around the street, running around the street, shooting rocks, doing things that they are not supposed to do,” Godwin Tagyen said. “The idleness it makes kids do things that they don’t suppose to do, because they don’t have nothing to do.”
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