NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
27 January 2003

SUSPECTS SOUGHT IN CITY SHOOTING AND HOMICIDE INCIDENTS; REWARD FUND INCREASED FOR OIL DELIVERYMAN MURDER BY STATE ASSOCIATION

Harrisburg, PA—Harrisburg Police continue to search for suspects in two separate shooting incidents that occurred last week, and the statewide heating oil dealer association has added to the reward fund for information about the murder of city oil deliveryman Leonard Smith Jr., Mayor Stephen R. Reed today reported.

Reed said police continue to search for the lone gunmen who shot Smith, Jr., to death last Friday in the 200 block of Hamilton Street. Smith was making a late night emergency oil delivery to a home when he and a coworker were accosted by a lone black male armed with a 9mm handgun who confronted them and demanded money. Smith and Miller struggled briefly with their assailant, who then fatally shot Smith several times in the abdomen and Miller in the arm before fleeing without any money. The assailant is described simply as a black male wearing a black or dark colored coat with a fur-lined hood.

The Mayor said the Pennsylvania Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association(PPMCSA), a statewide trade group representing over 500 petroleum distributors in the state, is now adding an additional $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the subject, which, combined with an existing $2,000 reward being offered by Dauphin County Crimestoppers, brings the total money being offered for information in the case to $3,000.

John V. Kulik, Executive Vice President of PPMCSA, said “Those in the business of delivering home heating oil take very seriously their responsibility to keep their customers warm in the winter. By all accounts, Leonard Smith, Jr. and his company epitomized the highest standard of his industry in that regard.”

Police are also continuing to search for a suspect or suspects in the early Saturday evening shooting that injured an 8-year old girl walking nearby. The Uptown shooting incident involved two groups of young men shooting at one another, with a stray bullet striking the innocent child. She was treated and released for her injury, and is expected to fully recover. Police have recovered numerous shell casings from the scene, and are searching for two young black males who fled the scene in a small-sized, late-model yellow pick-up truck.

Reed said: “These two incidents underscore the problems we have with the proliferation of handguns in American society, and the propensity of our young people to use them to resolve disputes. Solving this problem is not simply a matter of law enforcement or the criminal justice system. The desensitization of violence in our homes and in our mass media plays a very significant role in this social dynamic, and we will never stem this tide of senseless violence without more constructive involvement by parents, teachers, and spiritual and civic leaders in our children’s lives.

“Ultimately, we as a society must teach our children to resolve their differences without the use of force, intimidation or violence.”

XXX