13-Year-Old Hospitalized In South Philadelphia Shooting
By Dan Wing and Elizabeth Hur
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A teenager is targeted twice in two days.
Police are investigating a shooting in South Philadelphia late Monday afternoon that left a 13-year-old boy hospitalized in stable condition. Police believe it may have been over a bike that was stolen from the victim on Sunday.
"Not only was his bike stolen yesterday, today he was shot. So we're going to investigate as to what occurred and why somebody felt the need to shoot this 13-year-old boy," Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
Philadelphia police say the 13-year old victim was in a car with his stepfather and another young teen in the area of 20th and Morris Streets a little after 4:30 p.m. when two men walked up to the vehicle. Small says one of the men then fired eight times into the passenger seat before the car drove away.
"The driver of the vehicle, the boy's stepfather, then drove the 13-year-old to where the 13-year-old lives and that's where medics picked up the victim and took him to Children's Hospital," Small said.
Small says an undercover detective in an unmarked vehicle in the area for an unrelated case saw the whole thing and followed the suspects to a house on Mountain Street.
"It was crazy and I was scared," Tina Blackson, a neighbor recalled, "I did peek out the window and saw the SWAT team and thought, Oh Jesus."
"After we got no response from yelling at the bull horn and knocking on doors, SWAT made entry into the property. Turns out there was no one inside the property," Small went onto explain, "We did find a golf bag that contained two handguns, a revolver as well as a semi-automatic handgun."
Authorities will now use ballistic tests to determine if those guns were the ones used in the shooting. The homeowner was taken to be interviewed and as of Monday, police said he was considered a person of interest.
Small said, "He may be totally innocent, he may have been with the shooter, we're not sure, it's an investigation in progress."
No additional injuries have been reported.
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