PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia high school football star, who was shot earlier this week, has died. As homicide detectives investigate what happened, his family is calling on city leaders to step up and aim their focus on how kids are getting guns.
Kyleek Williams, 17, was a running back at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia. He loved basketball, music and his family. He was the middle child among three, and he would have turned 18 in March.
On Tuesday, around 7:30 p.m., after football practice, he went to the house of another player, according to his grandmother, Pat Williams. That's where authorities say Kyleek was shot in the stomach, in the basement of that home, on North American Street, near Champlost Avenue in Olney.
He died early Wednesday morning.
"Everyone is distraught, and we are trying to hang in there. We didn’t expect this, especially with Kyleek, because he’s our star," Pat said.
"We tried to decide what college we were going to let him go to, because he was so good at everything he did."
Pat says her grandson's contact information in her phone is under the name "Kyleek the star."
"He’s a star, and we knew he was going to be a big star," she said.
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The family questions whether the shooting was accidental, and they say they want more action from city leaders.
"The people in politics — it doesn’t matter how many programs they have, how much money the government gives us to take care of the gun problem. No," Pat said.
They are urging city leaders to find out where the guns are coming from, and how kids are getting them.
"Start at the beginning. Who’s supplying the guns? ... How are these kids getting these guns? They are buying them from somewhere, and that’s where they need to go. That’s the root of the problem."
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Secondly, she says: "Parents need to know what their kids are doing, if they have guns in the house."
No one has been charged in Kyleek's death, but police say they did take one person into custody.
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