EFFORT, Pa. — A teenager was killed Sunday in an armed robbery in Monroe County.
Troopers say Aiden Paiz, 15, from Kunkletown, was shot and killed near Squirrelwood Court and Sunset Lane in Polk Township near Effort around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The coroner arrived just before 10 p.m.
A 17-year-old also from Kunkletown was also shot and taken to a hospital.
"What I saw was a boy who spent a lot of time at home, who was deeply rooted in his family, and didn't get caught up in the garbage that goes around up here. In fact, we have troublemakers in the neighborhood. He pointed them out to me, and they were his age. He would point them out to me and say, 'I wouldn't even hang with them,'' said Elaine Caruso.
Caruso is his neighbor and is devastated by the loss of who she calls a friend. She says the boy often helped her and her husband with house and yard work, helping to close their pool just last week.
"This is a child! He's 15 years old. He's not going to graduate. He's not going to get married. He's not going to swim in my pool next year."
Police say the two victims and a third boy were stopped near Squirrellwood Court near Effort when multiple people approached them and opened fire.
Police believe the incident began as an armed robbery.
It's unclear if there are any suspects in the case.
"We need to rise up somehow, in some way, because most of it's being carried out by people who don't even live here. They don't live here. They come here from New York and New Jersey, and they carry this crap out, and then they go," Caruso added.
State police are asking anybody with information about the case to call the barracks at Lehighton at 610-681-1850 or Fern Ridge at 570-646-2271.