Law enforcement gather at the scene of a fatal shooting in Philadelphia on April 28, 2023. Matt Rourke/AP hide caption Law enforcement gather at the scene of a fatal shooting in Philadelphia on April 28, 2023. Next month marks two years since Addie Dempsey's grandson, Raheem Hargust, was killed during a shoot-out on her South Philadelphia block.
He was 36, and a frequent visitor to his grandma's house. The night of Hargust's death, police came to collect evidence, remove the body and speak with neighbors, Dempsey said. But when she walked out of her house the following morning, there was still blood on the sidewalk where Hargust's body had been.
"I seen it and I had to get it up," said Dempsey, 76. hide caption This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News . As gun violence escalates in certain U.
S. cities, the death toll has overshadowed an issue that is rarely discussed or acknowledged: many shootings leave behind violent and grisly messes, in public places, and city agencies don't always handle clean-up quickly or sensitively. Sometimes a victim's relatives or neighbors do it themselves, which can add to their grief, shock and feelings of abandonment.
Bucknell Street, where Dempsey has lived for three decades, is a block where people know each other – children ride bikes in the afternoons while adults chat on folding chairs or stoops. Dempsey wanted to clean the blood up before the neighborhood children saw it. "The kids, it might mess with their minds," sh.
