16-year-old boy killed, 12-year-old injured in South Philly shooting
The shooting happened in the 1200 block of Fitzwater Street, police said.
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A 16-year-old boy was killed and a 12-year-old boy injured in a shooting in South Philadelphia's Bella Vista neighborhood Friday night.
The shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of Fitzwater Street, police said. Officers responding to a report of a "person with a gun" found the older boy shot in the chest and the younger boy shot in the left leg, police said Saturday. Police took both victims to Jefferson University Hospital, where the 16-year-old was pronounced dead at 11:02. The victims' identities were not released.
On Saturday morning, members of a church congregation held hands and prayed in a circle as a police van sat parked nearby.
"From a spiritual standpoint, we felt like the need was here," said Patricia Nasir, 32, of the Greater Life Christian Center in West Philadelphia. The center does a prayer outreach every summer and was planning to hold one Saturday at 46th and Market Streets but went to Bella Vista after hearing of the shooting.
"It was the ages of those victims that I think really struck home for us," Nasir said.