PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police are looking for a 16-year-old boy in connection with last week’s ambush shooting outside a high school in Philadelphia that left a 14-year-old dead and four other teenagers injured following football practice. The 16-year-old is wanted by police on active arrest warrants, according the police, for a charge of murder, numerous counts of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, theft, obstructing justice, tampering with evidence, and crimes involving firearms. In the midst of a string of mass shootings that have frighteningly become routine due to the country’s rising murder rate, the incident on September 27 attracted national attention across the U.S. It also happened shortly after Philadelphia reached 400 homicides for the year, just a few homicides shy of last year’s pace, which resulted in the highest annual death toll in at least six decades.
The 16-year-old is “considered armed and dangerous,” according to police, and anyone spotting him should not approach but rather phone 911. He was previously only identified as a person of interest in the investigation. Other suspects have not yet been identified by police, but they previously claimed they were looking for five persons who leaped from a parked sport utility vehicle and started shooting at the youngsters as they fled an athletic field at Roxborough High School. Nicholas Elizalde, 14, of Havertown, Pennsylvania, died, and three other teenagers were taken to the hospital in an ambulance. One was attended to on the spot.
Police described the shooters as young children and said they were also looking for a sixth individual who was still inside the car. They claimed that one of the shooters chased the victim, who was 17 years old, down the street and shot him in the leg and arm. The gunman then allegedly tried to fire while standing over the victim, but his gun either jammed or ran out of ammunition. According to the police, Elizalde is not thought to have been one of the targets. After the incident, all of the teenagers who were rushed to the hospital were said to be in stable condition.
Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney had issued a directive prohibiting firearms and other deadly weapons from city parks, basketball courts, and swimming pools hours before the incident. In response to a court challenge citing state law prohibiting any city or county from implementing gun control measures, a judge has blocked the city from enforcing that order.
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