Teen Girl Shot By Stray Bullet While Walking To Central High School, Police Say
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A stray bullet nearly took the life of a Philadelphia high school student Monday morning. Police say around 8:15 she was walking to Central High School when shots rang out hear the corner of 16th and West Olney Avenue.
The girl, a 17-year-old junior, managed to get to the school where she received first aid from a school nurse until paramedics arrived.
"When police arrived, they went inside the nurse's office and found the 17-year-old student with a gunshot wound to her right shoulder. She was subsequently transported to Einstein where she's now in stable condition," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross.
Police say they have few leads at this point but found evidence of two different caliber weapons, suggesting two people were shooting at each other.
"It's a horrible thing that a student can't even walk to school without sustaining a gunshot wound. It's one of your worst nightmares," said Ross.
A family of four lives in an apartment where a bullet flew through the window. According to a neighbor, they had all just left for school and work before the shootout.
"That could have came through my window," said one woman who didn't wanted to be identified.
She says she fears for her own family's safety after the close encounter.
"I was sitting on the couch drinking a cup of coffee and I heard a pop pop – maybe 4 or five times," the woman said.
Between several public schools and nearby La Salle University, hundreds of students walk along the 1600 block of West Olney and anyone could have been shot.
Anyone with any information is asked to call police at 215-686-TIPS.