Germantown and Chelten. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)

On Friday, August 29, Germantown neighbor Steven Nelson reached out to the Germantown Info Hub, following the tragic incidents that happened earlier that week on Tuesday, August 26, asking if we would be open to publishing an open letter to neighbors in proximity to the issue — and beyond.

In a time where gun violence is prevalent, in the streets and in the news, we find it valuable to uplift narratives from our neighbors that center on care and connection, like this one, so we agreed.

First, we want to thank Steven for asking us if we could uplift this.

And lastly, we do want to offer some additional context ahead of reading that on Thursday, August 28, 14th District Police Captain Stuart McCollum gave a follow-up about the prior Tuesday incidents at a safety forum. There, he said that the involved parties are from West Philly, and neighbors shouldn’t worry about any lingering aftermath/retaliation.

As you may already be aware, our community suffered a tragic event in the early hours of Tuesday morning, August 26, when a young man was shot and killed on Marion St., just next to the Ritt apartment building.

Many of us in the immediate surroundings were awakened by the gunshots and the subsequent first responders’ arrival. It is obviously a tragedy on many counts, including for the young man who was killed, for his family and friends, and for our community. 

To say that I am saddened by this does not feel like it can fully convey the emotion felt, but please know that this is a shortcoming of language and expression, not of the depth of the emotion.

To my knowledge, the police investigation is ongoing, and the name of the victim has not yet been released to the public. I am not aware if he was a resident of the Price-Knox neighborhood, a nearby neighborhood in Germantown, or somewhere else. Nor do I yet know if the victim had family or friends in our community. 

If you read this and already know the victim and are directly suffering from his loss, please know that you have my sincere condolences and support. 

I also do not know any details about whether the individual who committed the crime is a member of our neighborhood or another nearby.

While we can not prevent the tragedy that occurred, nor can we prevent those that preceded it, we can focus on what comes next for us as a community.

In the short term, we can focus on what the surviving family, friends, and other affected individuals need. 

In the medium to long term, we can focus on what we need as a community and what we can do to help others, such that hopefully we can prevent any future conflict from escalating to such a terrible conclusion. What that will look like, I can’t yet say, but I do know that we can and should try to work toward it together. 

We won’t always agree on what the best path forward is, but hopefully, we will give each other room and support to pursue the efforts that they think will build that community and that world where we value each other as fellow humans, such that gun violence becomes unthinkable. 

This will take substantial effort, thought, reflection, curiosity, vulnerability, and collaboration. It is and will continue to be a lifetime effort. I also know many organizations already do this work, and we should engage with them, learn from them, and figure out what works best for us to heal.

Fortunately, this was not the only experience I had in our community that day. 

As I walked our dog in the morning, feeling saddened and rattled in the immediate aftermath, I met one of our newest neighbors for the first time, who is 11 weeks old. I saw the curiosity in their eyes and the joy in their older siblings’ face when I said hello. 

I met one Mastery student who cheerfully said “Good morning!” as she was waiting for school to start, when I was stopped nearby while my dog sniffed the grass. I met another young man who asked what kind of dog I had, and excitedly opened his phone, unprompted, and shared a picture of his new dog with me.

When I returned home, I encountered many neighbors outside, processing and communing with each other. 

I feel truly fortunate to have found this community. My spouse and I moved here at the beginning of 2022, and we were immediately welcomed into the neighborhood and embraced as valued members of it.

It became a running joke among friends from other cities and states that I so quickly became a Philadelphia evangelist, encouraging every friend to move here (or at least visit) because there is so much to love about this place. 

Not least of which is that we have a remarkable foundation of community here. It is easily the best community I have ever lived in. 

We need that community now to heal from this event, to support those directly affected, and to grow as individuals and as a community. We need that community to support kids and young adults as they learn how to treat each other, how to express themselves, and as they learn how their neighbors and their community value them.

It may turn out that neither individual involved had any direct ties to our community. It may also turn out that the victim could be described with a phrase like “he was no angel” or whatever phrase implies that he deserved what happened. It may turn out that the location may have been unexpected and seemingly random, and that the past of the shooter and/or the victim may justify to some that we need not respond to it, that we should only keep paying attention if there might be a repeat event that might affect us more directly. 

Personally, I don’t think that is the way to respond to this. Even if both individuals involved were not directly connected to our community, their presence will be felt long from now. I usually walk by that spot multiple times per day. I’ve looked at it and thought about what happened there every time since. 

That may not last the rest of my life, but also it very well may. 

Similarly, our response to this event as a community will last well beyond these first days and weeks. If we treat it as a random event that just so happened to occur within our community, and therefore we need not do anything, I think we risk sending the message that that person’s life did not matter, merely because they had made poor choices, or because they weren’t one of us, or whatever reason. It risks sending the message that once someone gets on a similar path, we no longer value them and do not care if they die. It sends the message that we are indifferent.

Instead of indifference, I hope that we care.

I hope that we care that anyone was killed, regardless of what facts we learn about them, their past, and their connection to our community. I hope that we care about how people are affected by it, and that we care for each other. I hope we care enough to act and possibly fail in trying to prevent this from occurring again, so that younger people see that it’s okay to care and that it’s okay to work toward a goal that won’t be realized for many years, and may have many failures and setbacks along the way.

I hope that you will join me in caring.

Steven Nelson has been a resident of Germantown and Philadelphia since January 2022. He is involved in the Price-Knox Neighbors Association, Friends of Vernon Park, and Weavers Way. You might see him walking with his wife, Mary, and their dog, Princess Grace. He hosts a radio show and podcast, DIY Democracy, on G-Town Radio every other Thursday at 5 pm, focusing on citizen engagement and democracy. A big baseball fan, he supports the Phillies and his childhood team, the Minnesota Twins. Go Phils!