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Only One Mic Podcast
Youth Gun Violence Is Stealing Our Children's Futures
A heartbreaking tragedy unfolded in Philadelphia's East Germantown neighborhood when 12-year-old Ethan Parker was shot and killed while filming a music video with teenage friends. What should have been a creative afternoon became yet another senseless loss in America's ongoing gun violence crisis. What steps will you take to address gun violence in your community? Please share your thoughts, subscribe to join the conversation, and help spread this crucial message about protecting our youth.
A 12-year-old boy is dead and a 17-year-old has been charged in connection with his shooting in an East Germantown neighborhood in Philadelphia. Let's talk about it. Yeah, it's a very unfortunate story and it's a story that we unfortunately hear over and over and, over and over again, and it begs the question how long are we going to do this to one another? You know, brothers and sisters, this is Carl Gerard. Only One Mike podcast. Thank you for joining, thank you for listening. I wish it could be under better circumstances, but this has to be said. We have a 12-year-old boy by the name of Ethan Parker who was shot and killed in East Germantown, in the East Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, and this was on Saturday. The shooting occurred while Parker was filming a music video with two teenagers inside a residence. The 17-year-old male who was present has been charged with third degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and other related offenses. Police recovered the weapons, including a bb gun, at the scene, and the investigation into how a live firearm ended up there is ongoing.
Speaker 1:Now, again, this is a tragic thing, philadelphia and I'm not just going to just point out philadelphia, but the story is taking place here, but the gun violence across the united states of america is out of control, and especially amongst our young people. There's a lot of factors that play into. You know this, this love of guns that our young brothers and sisters have developed and as the go-to to solve any issue. And, like a friend of mine once said, these guys are playing tag with these guns. I think these kids are getting these things and they don't know the impact that it has, when you use it, not just on the victim, but on the user as well, because it's unfortunate that this 12-year-old young man is gone. However, we also have a 17 year old whose life is pretty much being thrown away, and it could have been something as simple as an accident. I don't think there was no malice involved.
Speaker 1:Like I said, they were in there shooting a music video. The question that's being begged was how did that live firearm get there? And another question that I pose is what is the obsession with young people feeling like, in order to rap or whatever it is that they're doing, that guns have to be involved in this? I mean, what type of image is the entertainment industry portraying to these young folks to say, well, this is okay, you have to have this thing to make a statement in your songs or whatever. So I'm going to play a clip from NBC 10 to give a little bit more context in regards to what was going on with the shooting and the investigation involved in it. I want you guys to sit back and listen to this and then we'll collect our thoughts on it later on. So please check this out.
Speaker 2:A 12-year-old was killed in a shooting in East Pistorius Street this afternoon, and we begin with NBC10's Shaira Arias joining us live in West Oak Lane, with the latest on this investigation underway right now. Shaira.
Speaker 3:Good afternoon, johnny. We are actually right across the street from where that shooting happened, where that 12-year-old died. We had to move because things became a little bit tense just moments. While we were there, neighbors have been coming up to us all day asking exactly what happened. They are shocked to hear that something like this would happen the day before Mother's Day.
Speaker 4:It's so sad to think this happened. This is a very quiet block. I love my block and to hear something like this.
Speaker 3:Investigators say the 12-year-old boy was inside this home of the 1500 block of East Pasatoria Street Saturday afternoon. Officials say at around 1230, they responded to a call about a person with a gun. They found a 12 year old boy suffering from a gunshot wound to his stomach. In just a matter of minutes the child was pronounced dead at the hospital. Investigators say the boy was filming a music video inside the house with two other teens, a 15 and 17 year old. It is unclear which one of the teens fired the weapon obviously there were live guns there.
Speaker 2:The crime scene also consists of some other weapons, some BB guns, some fake guns. So how that live gun got there, who it belongs to, that is still all under investigation.
Speaker 3:Detectives were seen coming in and out of the residence where the weapon was discovered. Family members, who police say were inside the home during the shooting, are being questioned. Police say the music video that was being recorded by the teens is a key piece of evidence in the investigation.
Speaker 2:We're in possession of, however there needs to be, you know, legally warrants secured with respect to accessing that information.
Speaker 3:Neighbors on the block were shocked to find out a tragedy like this would happen on their block a day before Mother's Day.
Speaker 4:Tragedy like this would happen on their block a day before Mother's Day. The videos I think now are so violent and these kids I just don't understand. You know, I was raised with you. You didn't play with guns.
Speaker 3:Now, officials did tell us that the 12-year-old boy did not live inside this home. They say that they are still investigating if this was an intentional or an accidental shooting.
Speaker 1:Now, again, I don't think that, you know, it might have been anything intentional. Just, you know, looking through some some common sense lenses, because if these guys were together actually filming this music video, um, I don't see where this would be something that would possibly be with some malice in it. You could have just tapped the trigger and, you know, unfortunately, the young man you know was hit with it, but, um, it's something that the, the, the sister, said at the end. It's like why are these music videos so violent? Why do our young people feel, in order to make if you want to, you know, call it art through music, that violence has to go hand in hand with it. You know it begets violence if you put it out in the atmosphere. You know, as I've often said on other shows, that you know, uh, when we watched arnold schwarzenegger be the determinator, we understood the difference between reality and fantasy. You know, um, and the years are coming up and all we were explained that by our elders that you know this is not real. Real guns hurt, people get shot, it hurts, you kill somebody. That's something, that's, that's on your mind. But little man, man and risha and I'm, they can't, they can't differentiate the two. These days it seems like and this is where you see, like the, the, the violence spike in the way that it does and especially in the city.
Speaker 1:You know, and again, I'm not just pinpointing philadelphia because this is a nationwide problem, but you know, philadelphia, the uh, according to, I think, the police statistics here and I, and again, when we look at, like crime data, and this is from the Philadelphia Police Department, um, they're saying as of as of uh May, of uh May 11th, I believe it is 2025. It said it was only 69 homicides, 69 homicides. It said 4,383 total violent crimes. So this is as of, this is according to the Philadelphia Police Department, crime data. Again, like I said, these things me personally, I think they're a little askew sometimes because politics is also a numbers game and you know me, being from New York, I know that they'll say, oh, it's the safest city as of yet, but there's so much violence and stuff that's going on in in the train stations and things of that nature. I think it's the stuff that that's being reported, such as a story like this or something that tragic happens. I could be wrong and all my philadelphia brothers and sisters please correct me if I'm wrong um, in the comment section and all. Let me know where I stand with this. Are those statistics good? Are those statistics solid? Are you seeing something different? Because that's your respective city, and I'm only saying Philadelphia, because of this particular story and, again, nationwide issue. Definitely a nationwide issue.
Speaker 1:So, as a matter of fact, let's take a second to look at the gun statistics in America. In America, this is nationwide and 2025. There have been Over 5,066 homicides and murders, 8,771 total injuries and 104 mass shootings in the US due to gun violence. Now, this is according to the Gun Violence Archive. In addition, officer-involved shootings there have been 23 officer-involved shootings that resulted in death and 123 officers injured. Additionally, they say 468 unintentional shootings and 217 murder-suicides have been recorded. Again, this is according to the Gun Violence Archive and this is nationwide Violence Archive and this is nationwide.
Speaker 1:We have a problem, folks. Again, as we all know, we can say that the guns are so accessible these days, and especially to the youth. There's a lot of connecting factors that push this violence and suppress the things that make sense. You know, um, you can say violence in movies. You know, we, we see a lot of violence in movies and all, but where is the line blurred, and especially in this generation where violence comes so easily to our young people, you know. And then also we have a lot of old nuts out here too, that should know better, but don't, for some odd reason. But you know we, you know our focus on the youth, because this gets worse as it gets older. Anyone with children, grandchildren, know that you're going to send your kids out in the world amongst these things. And again, this young man here and I'm, I look at the pictures of the young man and on he really looks like, you know, a young if I could use the term square kid like he wouldn't seem like the type that's, you know, into violence and things of that nature.
Speaker 1:Wrong place, wrong time, maybe I don't, I don't know, I don't know, but I think that the influence of guns in our society is getting worse. And I'm going to be honest with you, and this is just me I don't think you'll ever get them off the streets. I don't think there will be any law passed that will say that you can't have it or you can't, you have to turn it in or we're going to confiscate. I don't think we'll ever see that in our lifetime. That's embedded within the Constitution, and in order to take that out, you would have to change the Constitution, which opens up a floodgate of a lot of things, especially now, in this current administration where they're trying to change so many things. I think that's one thing that they will not change. So I never look towards politics to change us.
Speaker 1:You know these things are individual choices. We have our children, you have your grandchildren, and all these things have to be taught from the gate. You know this is what it is. Pick up this gun. It's going to change your life in any form or fashion. You know, if you're around people that want to walk around with guns and perpetrate something, that they're not understanding what the consequences are, then again, these are life-changing decisions that's being made. I say this in closing that we definitely have to pray for the family of the victim, of Ethan Parker, the one that was killed, as well as the 17-year-old who was charged with the shooting. Like again, it could have been something that was totally unintentional. I don't think that he would have someone in the home shooting a video and then shoot the person which, from what it sounds like this, is on camera. So I'm pretty sure they're combing through whatever recordings that these young men made you know, to get more context on what happened, so you know again. It's victims all around.
Speaker 1:We have one that's a loss of life and we have one that's going to be a loss of freedom, you know. So, again, life-changing situations and more will come out as the investigation goes on. But again, I just send my prayers out to the family of Ethan Parker, as well as the 17-year-old person, young man, who shot Ethan. But we got to do something about this, y'all. I mean this is ridiculous, and I say this, you know. In closing, I will say this we get up and we march and we rally for different things, you know, and we say black lives matter when this situation is flipped on his head and it's like a cop that shoots a you know, a kid or whatever, or shoot any black man. I think we got to kind of start putting that same energy into situations like this, about gun violence in the neighborhoods, you know, and just kind of make like this big rallying call to stop it. If it takes protests to do this, if it takes marches to do this, or however you want to do it outside of violence, I mean we have to do something where we can get these young people together and discuss these situations, you know, in an open forum, give them some education, let them know what's going on out here, before we have more people throwing their lives away. So again, I'd like to thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1:It's Carl Girod with the Only One Mike Podcast. You can catch us on any place that you get all of your you know your social media. You know we can be found there Also, please, if you like this video, hit the like button, share it, subscribe. You know let's get this message out, y'all, let's get this message out. So please hit the notifications, the like, share, subscribe, all the good stuff that needs to be done to get this message out. Also, it helps the channel and you know it's a small effort for you but it's a big thing for us. All. Right, carl Gerard, the only one mic podcast. Signing off, peace.