Cops: Teen slain on Nicetown park bench
The Philadelphia Daily News - PhillyConfidential
Cops: Teen slain on Nicetown park bench
This post has been updated
A teenage boy was shot and later died in yet another instance of gun violence at a city park Thursday night, police said.
A 16-year-old boy was shot once in his chest at Nicetown Park on Germantown Avenue near Saint Paul Street just before 9 p.m. Cops said the teen was sitting on a park bench when he was shot from point blank range.
Police found a single .22-caliber shell casing on the ground about three feet from the bench where the teen was shot. Crime scene investigators later found a magazine clip and ammunition on a thatch of grass in the shadow of a cement wall.
The boy lost consciousness after he was wounded and was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:23 p.m.
Cops said about six people were at the park when the shots rang out. Two witnesses were taken to speak with officials in the Homicide Unit.
"This was an active playground" said Chief Inspector Scott Small. "There were kids here playing on the playground when the shooting occured."
One of the witnesses may have been sitting with the victim on the bench at the time of the shooting, police said, adding that a private surveillance camera at a nearby business may have recorded the incident.
The shooter's motive was unclear Thursday night, and two suspects were seen running east through the playground toward St. Luke Street immediately after the shooting, police said. Officials were working to form a detailed description of the shooters Thursday night.
The victim's relatives sat on park benches while police combed the scene for evidence around 11:30 p.m. Their moans were nearly drowned out by the sound of traffic rumbling along the nearby Roosevelt Expressway overpass.
The shooting is the second fatal incident this week involving gun violence in a city park.
An 18-year-old man was shot in his back in broad daylight Monday at the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center, on 22nd Street near Huntingdon, and later died at Temple University Hospital.
Similar to the Thursday night incident, police said the park was crowded with children and adults when shots rang out.
Heh...Safe Streets II or Stop & Frisk, one or the other. The bleeding hearts are gonna have make a choice.— RAP_SUX- RAP_SUX How could you make that comment? Who are you? Human?— pell
- Unfortunately, it is the same old same old. The Democrat greedheads have been running (ruining) this city for 50 plus years.— joedog
- Im sure this wasn't a random act of violence, and it's somehow drug related. Not that gives any justification for the homicide. Just saying I'm sure he was into something illegal and by no means totally innocent.— Dgirl28
- @ Dgirl28, how can you even let that assumption go from your mind, to your fingers, and on to the keyboard? That is the most racist/stereotype sounding comments one could ever say. And then you used the words "I'm sure" twice. Get real or own up to the fact that you know the situation.
— hawaiiphillyfan 
Comment removed.- Nicetown-Tioga is predominately black. Not that it makes any difference to this young man's family. — FreddyNits
- Putting more cops on these streets won't help. These animals will just shoot at the cops.— Lttim76(2)
- hawaiiphillyfan - how can you even let that assumption go from your mind, to your fingers, and on to the keyboard? That is the most racist/stereotype sounding comments one could ever say! Two assumptions by hawaii - person is commenting is not black and knows the race of the person shot! I would say you don't think with your brain!— BorninAmerica
- Maybe the kid disrespected the person who shot him by not giving them all his money fast enough, who knows. I mean this is Philly and "we's gots to keeps it real yo" you can't be disrespected.— FROM THE BEACH
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- Not all white men are scared of black men. — FreddyNits
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