Police confirmed that two teens have been arrested Wednesday in the rape of a 12-year-old girl at a city recreational center.
The 12-year-old told police she was raped Monday night by four boys at the Francis Myers Rec Center. That center is located on the 5800 block of Chester Avenue in the Kingsessing section Southwest Philadelphia.
"At a camp, a rec center? That's not supposed to happen," said rec center parent Lisette Burgos.
Police were called to the scene around 8:30 p.m. Monday after a volunteer saw a group of boys running from a stairwell and then found the teary-eyed victim in the third-floor stairwell. The girl says she was using the computer room when she was lured into the stairwell and raped by boys believed to be around 14 years old, police said.
The incident raised questions about security in city rec centers. City officials say they are in the process of installing security cameras but the question remains if there was enough supervision in the rec center at the time of the alleged attack -- officials say there were five to seven supervisors on site at the time..
"To say that if we had had 10 other people here it would’ve been prevented? I’m not going to say that, because I don’t know." Philadelphia Recreation Department Commissioner Susan Slawson said. "I believe that it was a crime of opportunity."
