4 suspects wanted after student killed near Simon Gratz High School
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Four suspects are wanted after the death of a 15-year-old sophomore on the way to Simon Gratz High School Mastery Charter Tuesday, police say. They're asking for the public's help.
Police say the motive appears to be a robbery after finding 15-year-old Devin Weedon with a gunshot wound to the chest and he later succumbed to his injuries.
Mastery Charter Schools' Simon Gratz Campus was closed Wednesday and called it "a day of healing."
There's a $30,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and a conviction, police say.
The shooting was caught on camera Tuesday near a furniture store at 16th Street and West Hunting Park Avenue in Nicetown.
Security video obtained by CBS News Philadelphia shows the suspects approaching the teen. He was approached by three people wearing all black, a fight broke out and a suspect pulled out a gun and shot the teen in the chest, killing him.
Weedon's parents have a message for their son's killers.
"You put a bullet in him and take his life," Wynita Burnside, the mother of Weedon, said.
Burnside said her son was an honor roll 10th grader who played football and dreamed of going professional one day.
"If he wasn't at the gym working out, he was at the field, if he wasn't at the field, he was at school," Burnside said. "From there, he would come straight home, he didn't roam around. He didn't do none of that."
Weedon is the 18th Philadelphia School District student killed this academic year. His father says as his family begins the process of planning a funeral, they are also seeking justice.
"I don't even have words for it all," Gary Weedon, the father, said. "I want to ask the guys is: 'Why did you kill him?'"
Officials are urging the public to contact the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334 or leave an anonymous tip at 215-686-8477.
