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Police recover Jeep possibly connected with Fels High School basketball player's murder in Philadelphia

Police recover Jeep possibly connected to Philadelphia HS basketball player's murder
Police recover Jeep possibly connected to Philadelphia HS basketball player's murder 02:44

A white Jeep Grand Cherokee matching the description of the vehicle seen leaving the murder scene of 17-year-old Noah Scurry, a Samuel Fels High School basketball player, was recovered in Northeast Philadelphia Wednesday morning, according to police.

Scurry was shot and killed Tuesday morning on his way to school with his mother. The shooting happened around 7:15 a.m. in the 5000 block of Rorer Street, near Tacony Creek Park and Roosevelt Boulevard, in the city's Feltonville neighborhood.

Surveillance video obtained by CBS News Philadelphia shows moments before Scurry was shot, a white Jeep parallel parking in the alley. Another surveillance video then shows the Jeep leaving the scene after the teen was shot.

Police said the Jeep recovered Wednesday matched the vehicle seen in surveillance video and the one detectives were looking for.

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CBS News Philadelphia

According to police, officers arrived on the block and found Scurry was shot multiple times throughout his body. He was rushed to Jefferson Einstein Hospital, where he later died.

Police sources confirmed Scurry was one of four people shot during an unsolved May 2023 murder case in the 4600 block of Mulberry Street in Frankford. According to police, 66-year-old Ivan Hall was shot and killed on May 28, 2023, and three then-15-year-olds were shot multiple times. Police sources said Wednesday that Scurry was one of the teens.

Homicide detectives are still investigating the motive and the whereabouts of any suspected shooter or shooters. No weapon was found at the scene Tuesday, police.

"The principal, coach, players, classmates, peers, are distraught," Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the School District of Philadelphia, said Tuesday. "This is unimaginable for them. The student was getting in the car with his mom this morning in the back of his home, and he was shot and killed. This student was about to graduate. He probably would've had offers to play basketball at colleges across the country. And you know, it's just a life senselessly cut short."   

Scurry was Fels' highest scorer on the SAT and a captain of the high school's boys' basketball team.

In a letter to families Tuesday, Fels Principal Melissa Rasper mourned Scurry, writing Scurry was a "beloved student and classmate."

"Ours is a tight-knit community, and I know that this is difficult news to receive even when it doesn't occur on school property," Rasper wrote. "Death is rarely something that is easy to accept, especially when it involves a young person, a classmate and particularly during these times as our city grapples with heightened gun violence."

The Philadelphia School District said emergency crisis response counselors are on hand for the students.

Colwin Williams, an anti-gun violence advocate, said the trauma is so deep for classmates and family.

"To be doing his routine, which should be safe. In an alleyway when this man was destined to be great," Williams said. "I can not place a definition on the type of trauma they must be going through."

Williams said he's concerned for the future of young people.

"My biggest fear is to become numb to it," Williams said. "Because every child who lost their life and didn't have the chance to dream is heartbreaking."

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