Last updated on Jan. 15, 8:40 a.m.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Police are investigating a shooting in North Philadelphia that left a 17-year-old Samuel Fels High School student dead and a school community in mourning.
Shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, police responded to a person with a gun on Rorer Street, near Roosevelt Boulevard, in the city’s Feltonville neighborhood.
When officers arrived, they found Noah Scurry with several gunshot wounds. He was in an alley behind his house. Police said he was with his mother getting into a car to go to school when he was shot. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died a short time later.
School District of Philadelphia spokesperson Monique Braxton said the teen was a star athlete on the Fels High basketball team.
“The principal, the coaches, they’re distraught, along with his classmates,” Braxton said. In addition, she said he was also a top student, with his SAT scores among the school's highest.
“Folks here at Fels are at a loss for why someone would target him.”
In a letter to the Fels community, Principal Melissa Rasper announced the school's boys' basketball games have been canceled for the rest of the week.
“Death is rarely something that is easy to accept, especially when it involves a young person,” said Rasper.
In a statement, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Art Steinberg said, “We are devastated that senseless gun violence has claimed the life of another Philadelphia public school student.”
Counselors from the district’s crisis response team will be on hand at Fels to help students process and grieve.
Police are now trying to find the person who killed Scurry. They did not release a motive for the shooting. Investigators are looking for a white Jeep Grand Cherokee seen before the shooting and leaving the neighborhood after the boy was gunned down.
CORRECTION: The article has been updated to reflect that Philadelphia police did not recover a weapon at the scene.