I-Team: Experts: Children- Collateral Damage in War on Drugs – PA home page

WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) The search is on tonight for the person who fired several shots into a Wilkes-Barre home last night wounding two people, including an 8 year old girl. The I-Team's Andy Mehalshick is in the neighborhood with the latest on the investigation.

You can see the bullet holes in a house in the 200 block of West Division Street in South Wilkes-Barre. Just before midnight shots rang out. An 8 year old girl sitting in the living room was hit twice in the arm. Her 20 year old brother was hit once in the arm..

We tried talking to people coming and going from the house this afternoon .They had nothing to say..

Detectievs are not saying what they believe happened here but sources close to the investigation tell the I-Team it is connected to the drug world..

"We are seeing that more innocents ,innocent individuals are being affected hurt by it." noted Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavanits.

She is talking about the impact of the drug trade and drug addiction in our region. Drug overdose deaths are on the rise.

Last October, a man and woman were found unconscious inside a Hazleton home. The woman later died from a drug overdose, four young children were also in the home... Salavantis says society cannot simply jail their way out of this problem..

"We need to look at drug treatment court and look at programs that help the addict."

"There's a lot of collateral damage that we see with the drug game." said Jason Harlen.

Harlen is a drug counselor and says his agency Wyoming Valley Drug and Alcohol receives calls everyday from people who are concerned that a loved one is hooked on drugs.

"The collateral damage is never ending it's a very violent games and it's something that will never go away."

Wilkes-Barre Police ask anyone with information to give them a call.

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I-Team: Experts: Children- Collateral Damage in War on Drugs - PA home page