Mensah M. Dean

2 weeks ago | thephiladelphiacitizen.org | Mensah M. Dean

On April 22, two unrelated but inextricably linked incidents rattled Bill McKinney, executive director of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, a 40-year-old organization that provides social services to one of Philadelphia’s most troubled communities. After a local business owner called to tell McKinney that two groups of men across the street were fighting and drawing guns, McKinney dispatched some of the violence interrupters from his organization’s Cure Violence program.

2 weeks ago | thetrace.org | Mensah M. Dean

The Trace On April 22, two unrelated but inextricably linked incidents rattled Bill McKinney, executive director of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, a 40-year-old organization that provides social services to one of Philadelphia’s most troubled communities.

3 weeks ago | thetrace.org | Victoria Clark |Mensah M. Dean

The Trace Last summer, veteran and Philadelphia-area business owner Maurice Byrd fatally shot his neighbor Stephen Strassburg, who hurled racial slurs at Byrd while moving aggressively toward him. This was apparently not the first time. According to Byrd and several neighbors, Strassburg, who was white, had harassed Byrd for years. The aggression had led Byrd to call the police on his neighbor five times.

3 weeks ago | inquirer.com | Mensah M. Dean

This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. Maurice Byrd’s memory is vivid as he recounts the clash with a drunken, irate neighbor that led him to shoot the man last June. It was the culmination of several years of hostility: Byrd, who is Black, said he regularly endured racial slurs from Stephen Strassburg, who was white.

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Mensah M. Dean

This story was originally published by the Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. On March 29, a tall, slender male clutching a handgun ran toward a crowded basketball court. Before he had even fired a shot, surveillance footage from Philadelphia’s Finley Recreation Center shows, teens started to flee. But not everyone made it off the court in time.