Rashawn Woodson had gotten into some trouble, but he had a new daughter and was trying to turn his life around, his family said yesterday.
He liked to cut hair, fix cars and cook, but he never got the chance to do much with those interests. The 17-year-old was shot in the back Thursday on Norwood Street near Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia and died just after 8 that night.
Police said yesterday that they had arrested a 16-year-old suspect whom they did not identify because he is a juvenile.
Woodson, of Gerritt Street near 20th, and the suspect had been involved in a disagreement before the shooting, police said.
Woodson recently returned home from Glen Mills, a residential school for juvenile delinquents, his family said.
"He didn't have a [specific] direction . . . he was just trying to find his way," said Mitchell Spencer, his uncle.
Woodson had been attending evening classes at South Philadelphia High School through the Work-Stream Educational Options Program, or Twilight program, according to Philadelphia School District officials.
Woodson's girlfriend was pregnant when he went to Glen Mills and had a daughter, Nalayah, by the time he came home.
His daughter's birth "was one of the big turnarounds," for him, said Woodson's father, Reginald Hoggard.
Afterward, he began working to take care of his family.
Most days, "he went to school and then straight" to see Nalayah, who lived with his girlfriend, Hoggard said, calling his son's death "a terrible loss."
"I could see a change in him," he said. "It took for him to trip and fall - but he got back up, and got himself together."
Family members said that he was shot by a teenager with whom he had recently gotten into a fight.
"He didn't get in any violent act to get shot at," said his mother, Aquia Spencer. "To use a gun, that doesn't make any sense. Now, I don't have a child."
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