Part 6: Violence finds a promising student

Originally published March 22, 2009.

In the homestretch of senior year, Walter Jonathan Pinder was hitting high marks on his SATs, writing poetry, and playing on Overbrook High School's drum line.

Now he's weathering an all-too-familiar urban trauma in his quest for college.

The 19-year-old, who has overcome many obstacles in his young life, was attacked by a group of about 10 teens on a Saturday afternoon in January and injured so severely that he required surgery, according to court records.

His attackers forced him to fight them one by one until he was "exhausted and overwhelmed" and "finally gave up," then stabbed him repeatedly, a police report said.

Two 16-year-olds have been charged with attempted murder.

Walter has left Overbrook and is completing his senior year in an undisclosed location.

"We were all just stunned," Overbrook principal Ethelyn Payne Young said.

Guidance counselor Lorraine Battle, who last spoke with Walter by phone about two weeks ago, said he was on track for graduation, had been accepted by six colleges, and was staying upbeat despite the brutal setback.

"His spirits are good," she said.

School district officials said they were working with Walter's new school so that he could receive a diploma on time and get to college.

"He's a good kid, and we want to make sure good kids get the rewards they're supposed to get out of this world," said Michael Silverman, superintendent of the city's neighborhood high schools.

Such violence often stalks city students trying to overcome poverty, crime, and absent parents through education.

Philadelphia Futures, which mentors promising teens through college, saw one of its students, Tyrone Myers Jr., murdered in a neighborhood robbery in 2006, just shy of a degree from Pennsylvania State University. Another recently was mugged on his way home from a book-club meeting.

"How do you cope? I guess it's part of the territory, part of their lives," said executive director Joan Mazzotti. "Because their needs are so deep, our services are so intensive."

It is not clear from court records what prompted the attack on Walter. The District Attorney's Office declined to comment.

None of the youths attended Overbrook with him, though he told police he knew some of them.

Walter did not respond to The Inquirer's calls and e-mails, but in an interview last summer, the drum-line member with a flair for writing reflected on his determination to achieve.

"Things are going to happen, so you've got to keep moving. You can't dwell on what's already happened or what's going to happen."

"It's like I know so many people who have so much potential and they're throwing it away, and I don't want to do that. . . . I want to be successful."

Walter spent his early years in foster care. His father died in prison in 2007, and his mother left him. He had lived with an uncle for the last year.

As his guardians moved around, he attended 11 schools in as many years.

Now he's at his 12th.

From the beginning, Walter was identified as a child of promise, labeled as gifted in elementary school. But he admitted he sometimes faltered. He had to repeat eighth grade.

He landed at Overbrook High in 2006, by then an avid poet. Teachers quickly moved him into a scholars program for top students.

From there, he took off.

Last summer, he helped with cutting-edge cell-membrane research in the University of Pennsylvania's chemistry department and presented results at an American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia.

On the SAT, with no preparation, he scored 640 out of 800 on the verbal section, hundreds of points higher than most from his economic background. Eager to boost his lower math score, he accepted an offer for free tutoring. He raised his score by 70 points.

Walter had been looking forward to participating on Overbrook's acclaimed mock-trial team, which next weekend will go to the state championship.

"He was one of the kids from the very beginning that I sort of had my eye on," team coach Philip Beauchemin said. "He was sort of nerdy, enthusiastic, and he always had things to say."

But in December, Beauchemin became concerned because Walter began to show up to class less frequently.

With his high English SAT score, Walter was excited to get a letter from Harvard University, one of 80,000 sent to promising students, but decided Harvard would be too much of a stretch.

So far, he has been accepted to Penn State's main campus, Millersville University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Ursinus College, Eastern University, and Delaware State University, said Battle, his guidance counselor.

He hadn't heard from New York University as of a couple weeks ago. Battle said she thought Walter was leaning toward Penn State.

"He's waiting to see who is going to give him the most money."

She plans to keep advising him. "I realize we all have to push Walter. He's on track. I just want him to be happy."

On the afternoon of Jan. 10, Walter went to West Philadelphia to meet two 16-year-olds. One allegedly was Kaseem Reese, a Kensington High student, who Walter told police he had known for more than a year.

But, according to the police report, 10 teens confronted him and insisted he fight them one by one. When he collapsed, they surrounded him, and he was stabbed in the head, neck, and arm and robbed of his cell phone.

At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he was treated for stab wounds, a cut lip, and a fractured eye socket that required surgery. Walter's uncle, Juan Frazier, said he had no permanent damage.

Reese, who lives on Jasper Street in Kensington, and 16-year-old Syhema Whitted, of South 61st Street in West Philadelphia, are charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, and other offenses.

Charged with aggravated assault, robbery, criminal conspiracy, and other offenses are a third 16-year-old, Shakur Saulsbury, and two 18-year-olds, Joseph Scruggs and Justin Felix, all of West Philadelphia.

Raymond Driscoll, an attorney for Reese, said a prosecutor had stated the attack could have been gang-related, but added that he had seen no evidence of that.

Paul Goldman, the assistant district attorney overseeing the case, declined to comment.

A preliminary hearing is set for April 20.

Interviewed last summer, Walter said he was intent on beating the "statistics."

"If I don't continue to do what I have to do to get out of here, I'll be like everyone else - and I'm not," he said.

The violence in the city saddened him.

"You hear about guys dying every day, for what?"

His uncle said Walter at times seemed unaware of danger around him. The teen walked out of church one night and seemed oblivious to gunfire nearby, Frazier recalled.

"I am aware!" Walter argued at the time. "I've been aware since second grade."