Site of shooting, party house in Lower Heidelberg is locked up

by Steve Reinbrecht

A thick bolt and padlock on the door of a Lower Heidelberg house are designed to keep out unwelcome partiers after a teenage boy was shot July 17 when dozens of young people thronged to the Green Valley neighborhood for an early morning after-party.

The next day, police arrested an 18-year-old Reading man and charged him with attempted murder in the shooting.

Township police are still investigating and have suspects in other violence that broke out on the street, Hill Terrace Drive, before the shooting, Detective Chris Stouch said Friday.

The shooting is the only attempted murder with a firearm in Lower Heidelberg that Stouch recalls in his 10 years with the township. He said violence is rare in the township, which has about 6,000 residents.

“This is very unlike Lower Heidelberg. The biggest problem we have is an influx of outside people coming in.”

As many as 150 mostly young people in about 40 vehicles swarmed into the neighborhood about 2:15 that Sunday morning. Most had been at a club in Bern Township. When it closed at 2 a.m., someone told the DJ to announce an after-party at 4219 Hill Terrace.

They couldn't fit in the house,so they milled on the street. Within minutes after they arrived, several groups started fighting outside the house. According to the Reading Eagle, the defendant took a gun from his vehicle and fired a few shots in a dispute over a girl. The victim, from Muhlenberg Township, was hit in the arm.

About 10 police officers from several departments detained, identified and questioned dozens of partiers, though many fled. No one from Lower Heidelberg or Southwestern Berks was involved, Stouch said.

The house has a legal tenant but nobody is living there and young people have used it for parties. County records show that Eleni and Maria Soulimiotis, in care of Mark Shoener of Spring Township, bought it in December 2007.

An attorney representing the owner installed the lock and further secured the house at the township’s request, Supervisor Cheryl Johnson said Saturday.

At their meeting July 18, neighbor Mark Wallace urged township supervisors to deal with the house, which he said has been a problem for more than a year.

Wallace said police responded quickly to many complaints about loud parties at the house, but a shooting showed the problem had become urgent.