YORK, Pa. — York City Police Commissioner Michael Muldrew issued a statement Wednesday after the latest homicide in the city late Tuesday night.
Ethan Mooney, 19, died of multiple gunshot wounds at York Hospital following a shooting at 11:52 p.m. on the 500 block of West Market Street on Sept. 28, York City Police said.
According to the York County Coroner's Office, Mooney was transported to York Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:49 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28.
The homicide is the 18th to occur within the city this year, and it prompted a response from Muldrew, who assured the public that his department is doing everything it can to combat gun violence.
Muldrew's full statement can be read below:
First, our thoughts and prayers go out to each one of these victims and the families they leave behind, because (regardless of the decisions people make) no one should ever die at a young age. While we can explore and debate the underlying causes, the fact remains: we have to address the symptoms (the gun violence, gang beefs and crime) before we can deal with the [deeper] problems (self-Destructiveness, trauma, poverty, and generational curses). With individuals more willing to take one another's lives...these groups clashing at a higher frequency, the beefs and motivations intensifying, and the actors all resorting to gun violence as their means to resolve everything. The age of the actors getting younger and younger, and (with it) a system (one that's been trying to move from the punitive to the redemptive) struggling to find ways to balance human rights versus public safety, combined with the ease of access to the high capacity, high volume automatic firearms (every community is seeing) and the limited number of officers, detectives and resources we have to defend the streets and work these cases...we're out-manned and out-gunned! But even with all that said: we're still fighting, we're still thankful and committed to the strategies and the good work being done by our officers and community partners (to help hold the line through this difficult time). And we're going to keep doing what we need to do to try to hold that line (and protect this community) until we get the resources we need to truly contend with those symptoms and the "street level" challenges of this current climate (resources such as community surveillance cameras, additional officers and conflict resolution and gun violence prevention education in our schools). Hold on York, you're not alone.
Tuesday night's homicide remains under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to contact York City Police at (717) 849-2204 or submit an anonymous tip online.
