READING, Pa. \u2014 \u201cLike two in the morning, all we heard was what sounded like a lot of gunshots.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how Jose Torres describes what he heard from inside his apartment near South 17th and Cotton streets early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard the police from far away and then all of a sudden they had blocked everything off,\u201d Torres said. \u201cI see them take a guy in an ambulance\u2026 and then the next day I came and seen all this glass on the floor here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police say three men were shot outside a bar around 2 a.m. Investigators say the shooting was an isolated incident tied to a fight outside the business. All three victims remain hospitalized.<\/p>\n
Just down the block, neighbor Adolfo Rios says he found out while working.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 5 o’clock, my wife called me to my job,\u201d Rios said. \u201cMy wife told me, \u2018Hey honey, you know what?\u2019 I said, \u2018What?\u2019 \u2018There’s a whole bunch of police over here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rios has lived in Reading for 40 years and says the violence is becoming harder to ignore.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came over here, everything quiet,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could leave the door open. Nobody bothers you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Eddie Moran and State Representative Manny Guzman also posted statements online calling for community collaboration following the shooting.<\/p>\n
But by Monday evening, that frustration turned into a silent protest outside Reading City Hall.<\/p>\n
Violence prevention advocate Radara McClendon says shootings like this leave trauma behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m feeling like the community is feeling; defeated and a little too desensitized to what we’re seeing,\u201d McClendon said. \u201cAnd I wish that wasn’t the reality, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says more intervention and prevention efforts are needed across the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need access to mental health treatments,\u201d McClendon said. \u201cWe need paid work opportunities for these young people because we know poverty and racism and things like that are the root causes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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