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Philly teen dies after being shot in Oxford Circle student melee

Messiah Chiverton was a junior at Frankford High School. Another teen, Muhammed Goode, 18, was arrested last week.

Investigators look for evidence on Magee Avenue near Bustleton Avenue, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, in Oxford Circle.
Investigators look for evidence on Magee Avenue near Bustleton Avenue, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, in Oxford Circle.Read moreJoseph Kaczmarek/For The Inquirer

A 16-year-old boy who was shot in the head last week in Oxford Circle has died, police said Monday.

The teen died Sunday evening, Homicide Capt. John Ryan said.

A spokesman for the city Medical Examiner's Office and a family member identified the victim as Messiah Chiverton.

Renee Glenn, 57, the victim's paternal great-aunt, said that her great-nephew was a junior at Frankford High School.

"I'm at a loss for words," she said Monday, speaking at the doorway of her Overbrook home. "It's senseless. The violence is just absolutely senseless. It's two families that's destroyed now."

Muhammed Goode, 18, of Northeast Philadelphia, was charged last week with attempted murder, gun offenses, and related counts. The attempted-murder charge is expected to be upgraded to murder.

Ryan has said the shooting, which occurred about 4:25 p.m. Wednesday on the 2100 block of Magee Avenue, happened during a fight among a group of high school students.

A Second District Police officer witnessed the shooting. The suspect was apprehended by police shortly afterward following a chase. A semiautomatic gun was recovered near the shooting scene.

Glenn said she thought her great-nephew was an innocent passerby, who was on his way home, but Ryan said the victim was part of the group of teens who were out at Bustleton and Magee.

Detectives were still trying to identify and interview all the teens who were at the scene, Ryan said Monday.

Besides shooting the victim, Goode fired his gun two more times into the crowd, but did not hit anyone else, the captain said. He said Goode was either a current or past student at Northeast High School.

At Goode's home on the 2200 block of St. Vincent Street in Castor Gardens, the defendant's mother said Monday that she had a message for the victim's mother, whom she did not know: "As a mother to another mother, I apologize for what happened to her son. I lost a son, as well. She's not at fault. Neither am I."

Goode's mother, who did not want to give her name, said she did not know what happened last Wednesday. She and a male family member, who also did not want to give his name, both sent their condolences to the victim's family.