PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The 14-year-old boy who was killed over the weekend on a SEPTA subway platform in West Philadelphia is the 14th kid killed this year by gun violence.
Police identified the boy as Wort Whipple and say he got into a tussle with another young man on the Market-Frankford Line on Saturday afternoon. Whipple was fatally shot in the chest and arms on the platform.
"It looks like it was a fight that ends in gun violence — which seems to be the story we have quite a bit, so it's very brazen," said Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore.
"I believe they are fighting on the train, and the platform is where we have the crime scene, so it may have been when it stopped."
Whipple died a short time later at the hospital.
Vanore says they are still looking for the shooter, who ran off. He was caught on video near 54th and Chestnut streets, where police say he ditched his clothes and tried to burn them.
"What we know is that the offender did exit the El around 52nd Street. And through video, we know, he went through at least the 5400 block of Chestnut, where we found some clothing which match[es] the description we have from the video," Vanore said.
"There's a denim-style pants, and a black hooded sweatshirt, which we think have recovered."
Investigators are still trying to pull evidence from what they were able to salvage.
Whipple's death is an unfortunate addition to a recent rash of young victims of gun violence. An 11-year-old was struck by a bullet in the leg Friday evening in South Philadelphia, alongside a man and a woman.
A 17-year-old was shot three times in the leg Saturday afternoon in Kensington.
And last Thursday, at 21st Street and Nedro Avenue, near Belfield Recreation Center, a 17-year-old boy was killed, and three more boys, ages 16, 15 and 7, were wounded in a shooting.
About 70 juveniles have been shot since January, and 65 of them are boys.
Shooting victims are getting younger and younger, and authorities urge parents to search their children's belongings to see if they're carrying guns.
