READING |—
For years, Reading has been known as the Outlet Capital of the World, attracting crowds to its factory stores. But now, the city is gaining a reputation for something else: gunfire.With an unprecedented number of shootings, Reading suffers from the nation's 33rd worst record for violent crime. And it has the state's worst murder rate.
Reading is reminiscent of the Prohibition Era, when gangsters shot each other for control of Chicago's bootleg liquor market. In Reading, dealers are shooting each other for control of the illegal drug market.
Armed with semiautomatic weapons, they're fighting gun battles on the streets, spraying each other with dozens of bullets.
Miraculously, bystanders rarely had been caught in the crossfire — until December. Then a series of shootings forced innocent people to dive for cover, alarming the city like never before.
One shooting gained more attention than the others, the one Mayor Joseph Eppihimer called ''the shot heard around the city.'' In late January, a bullet sailed through a preschool classroom from a gunfight on the street.
No one was hurt, but within days residents had descended on City Hall to demand the resignation of Eppihimer and his police chief. Eppihimer remains in office but is not seeking re-election. Chief Frank Delewski stepped down.
Like a tranquil island, downtown Reading has been relatively calm. So has the area around the Reading Phillies' stadium in northwestern Reading. But in many other areas, Reading is plagued with crime problems like those of the nation's largest cities, despite having a population of only 81,000. Statistics tell the story:
At least 20 people were slain in Reading in each of the last three years, mostly with guns. That's more than Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton combined.
More than 135 other people were shot or threatened with guns in each of the last three years in Reading. That's also more than Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton combined.
The residential neighborhoods have been hit the hardest. Some have become places where residents are afraid to walk the streets or sit in their yards. Many residents and business people have heard gunfire or seen victims lying in the streets.
Growing up, Marcelino Colon, 44, remembers walking from one side of Reading to the other to play basketball. Today, Colon said, he wouldn't let his two sons do the same thing. ''It's a whole different world out there ,'' said Colon, who leads a program to get rid of the drug dealers.
Frustrated and confused, law enforcement experts don't know why Reading is so much worse than other nearby cities its size.
''If we knew what the root causes were, we'd be better equipped to attack it,'' said John Seiler, a supervisor with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Harrisburg.
But clues lie in the social and economic deterioration of the city, conditions that allow crime to thrive. Before the drug dealers took over many of its streets, Reading had deteriorated more than neighboring cities. Its poverty level, unemployment rate and housing conditions have been far worse than nearby cities for years. It also has a much higher population density.
''I think it's a cauldron for breeding crime,'' said Berks County Judge Stephen Lieberman.
City and county leaders organized a counterattack two years ago, calling in extra law enforcement personnel from the federal government. They also mobilized residents and business people, hoping that grassroots action would help turn the streets into hostile territory for criminals.
But the shootings have continued at a horrendous pace, prompting City Council President Vaughn Spencer to characterize the fight against crime as a war. ''It's a war to take back our streets,'' he said. ''It's a war of survival.''
No one believes it will be a short war.
