Boy, 15, shot in 2:30 a.m. bar fight

A 15-year-old boy shot in the chest during a wild Halloween night in North Philadelphia remained in critical condition Tuesday.

Police said the victim at the El Callejon II bar at Second Street and Indiana Avenue when an older male grabbed him by the shirt and shot him.

Employees and patrons at El Callejon said the boy was not shot inside the establishment. The bar was open Monday afternoon and showed no signs of having been a crime scene hours earlier.

Patrons said they did not know the boy and were not certain if he had been in the place before the shooting.

Waitress Manzara Gonzalez said she saw about 20 men and women - many of them wearing costumes - fighting in a nearby parking lot when she was leaving work about 2:30 a.m. Monday.

That's when police said the boy was shot.

Gonzalez speculated that the boy might have been one of the brawlers, or merely someone walking past.

"We don't know who he was, or where he came from," she said.

Someone drove the wounded teen to his home, and police and medics were called there, authorities said. The boy, who was not identified, was taken to Temple University Hospital.

Gonzalez said there was a fight inside the bar about 1:30 a.m. "and we sent them outside." She encountered a second large brawl as she was leaving work at American Street and Indiana Avenue.

She said many of the combatants were wearing masks, and the women were in "sexy" outfits.

Someone also was running around the neighborhood shooting a paint gun. Gonzalez pointed to several yellow paintball splatters on the outside walls of the bar.

"We don't see that kind of thing here," she said. "Maybe it's because it was Halloween."

Several patrons of El Callejon expressed surprise and concern that the boy was out so late.

"What's a 15-year-old doing out there?" asked one man, who declined to give his name.

The suspect was described as a Hispanic male, 19 to 20 years old, 5 feet, 5 inches to 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with a thin build. He was clean-shaven and wearing an orange jacket, light blue jeans, and a black baseball cap.