City leaders “shaken and disgusted” by murder of recreation center employee, Tiffany Fletcher

By Joe Holden

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — City leaders are “shaken and disgusted” by the murder of a worker at the Mill Creek Recreation Center in West Philadelphia. Tiffany Fletcher was caught in the crossfire on Friday afternoon.

A 14-year-old has been charged as an adult in her murder.

In the wake of Fletcher’s killing in West Philadelphia, anti-violence groups are handing out pamphlets and Philly police are amping up their patrols. But what about the cameras? There are at least three surveillance cameras at the rec center, but the quality of the cameras is not as good as it should be, according to police.

“My aunt was a wonderful mother. She was a wonderful aunt, sister, daughter,” Jane Washington said. “Tiffany Fletcher was a good woman to everybody She was a friend. She was an advocate and she worked hard to serve for her own community, which we grew up in.”

Fletcher was on the job at the Mill Creek Rec Center for only a few months.

At a news conference Monday, city officials said the mother of three stepped up when the city needed help.

“In the spring of this year, Tiffany answered that call to service,” Philadelphia Parks and Rec Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell said, “and agreed to come and work with us at Parks and Recreation as a pool maintenance attendant.”

Fletcher was shot and killed Friday as a 14-year-old boy exchanged gunshots with a group of three others on opposite corners of 47th and Brown Streets.

Fletcher was caught in the middle, hit in the right and left sides.

“Yet again, we are talking about kids,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. “Kids shooting guns at a playground with tragic results.”

Officers already assigned to the area as part of a city initiative to make rec centers safer quickly arrested that 14-year-old. They recovered a 9mm Polymer80 handgun that investigators say is a “ghost gun.”

City leaders, prosecutors and Fletcher’s family begged for information to identify the rest involved in her killing.

“We need help. We want justice, not just for her but for her children,” Washington said. “If you know something say something.”

Mayor Jim Kenney implored people to come forward with information.

“I know these guys are heartless and cold and cruel,” Kenney said, “but I’m telling you if we don’t get this information, we can’t move forward.”

But lead investigators say available footage from surveillance cameras on this city rec center has frustrated their investigation. Detectives say they’re having difficulty identifying people possibly involved in the shooting or those who could have information.

Eyewitness News took that point to the mayor’s office, asking about the quality of surveillance cameras at these facilities and whether there is a specific project or plan in place to improve this technology.

A spokesperson responded, “Because this involves an ongoing police investigation, we cannot speak to the veracity of the premise of your questions and therefore decline to comment.”

Police are looking to catch up with three people they say are involved in the shooting.

A $30,000 reward is being offered for information leading to arrests.

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