Family of public housing complex afraid to go back after shooting

Chester, Pa. (WTXF) A Chester family is afraid to go back to their public housing complex after a shooting that left a 5-year-old injured.

FOX 29's Bruce Gordon has the story.

Latosha Hayes sits with her son on a couch on the front porch of her mother-in-law's home in Chester and frets over her 5-year-old son.

READ MORE: 5-year-old shot in Chester home

"It's really bad at night with him," she says, "like having trouble sleeping."

Latosha Hayes says life hasn't been the same since a drive-by shooter put a bullet into little Marc, Jr.

It was the night of June 6th-- a gunman or gunmen sprayed shots into a group of men standing around outside Latosha's Chester Housing Authority apartment on the 400 block of Whittington Place.

A single shot shattered a kitchen window and hit little Marc as his parents tried to shield him. The bullet entered under his left arm and lodged in his armpit.

Surgeons removed it just two days ago.

Marc is a little boy of few words--how's he feeling right now? "Better." How's his arm? "Good."
What was the surgery to remove the bullet, like? "I didn't feel nothing."

But when asked if he is willing to return to the apartment where the shooting occurred, he becomes much more animated.

"No," he says. "I don't want to get shot again."

But Latosha says the CHA has rejected her requests to move her family to safer public housing.

"That's their complex, she says. "The guys that be around there-- they don't even live there. So you all are not even doing anything to make it safe for us to even go back to our home!"

FOX 29's Bruce Gordon went to the housing authority looking for answers. A written statement was ultimately provided, in which a spokesman says, "This (shooting) incident was extremely unfortunate and we are very disheartened by what happened. We have placed Ms. Hayes and her family on a transfer list. However...we do not have another property to offer at this time."

So Marc and his mom and three siblings stay at grandma's house for who knows how long. He says he cannot go back to Whittington. He does not want to risk getting shot again.

"I don't want my family to get shot, neither."