Students React To Fatal Shooting During Brawl Near Overbrook High
By Jim Melwert
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An Overbrook High School student was shot and killed in a playground right across the street from the school on Thursday afternoon.
Police say he was an innocent bystander in a crowd watching a fistfight between two teens, when two men in the crowd pulled handguns and started firing (see related story).
Several people had gathered in the Tustin Playground to watch the fight. Police say that when one of the kids in the fight started losing, two people who were with him pulled guns and started firing.
Two 17-year-olds were hit by gunfire. One of them, a sophomore at Overbrook High, was killed.
Students showing up for school here Friday say it is scary.
"You're used to fights, that I get, but the gunshots are totally new."
"It's started to make our parents think it's unsafe."
"It made me a little nervous, I'm always nervous coming here, but I hope it doesn't happen again."
Jonas Wynfield, who owns a coffee shop across Lancaster Avenue, says he got to know that teen.
"Wanted to go to school and go to college, and it's just sad to hear because he was a nice kid," Wynfield tells KYW Newsradio. "He always came in and was very respectful."
The other 17-year-old who was shot is in critical but stable condition.
Police say both suspected shooters are in custody, a 20-year-old and an 18-year-old. They say the 18-year-old was found nearby with a graze wound to his back, and they say they were able to catch both of them thanks to help from witnesses of the shooting.
School district spokesman Fernando Gallard says students are in school today, and there are counselors on hand to help them deal with this news.
"It is a very somber day in the school," Gallard says. "We do have psychologists and counselors in the school, working with the staff and working with the student. We are doing as best we can to assist with what is very sad news. The school is very shaken by what occurred yesterday here across the street."
