2
14
A 14-year-old boy has turned himself in for his role in the Thursday afternoon shooting of a 19-year-old on a busy Center City subway station platform, Philadelphia police said Friday.
Accompanied by his mother, the boy, whose name was not released, surrendered around 8 a.m. Friday.
He is expected to be charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, illegal gun possession, and related crimes, said Capt. John Walker, head of the department’s nonfatal shooting unit.
Just before 12:30 p.m. Thursday, police said the boy shot the 19-year-old man three times — in the chest, stomach, and hand — after an argument on the SEPTA City Hall station’s eastbound platform of the Market-Frankford Line.
The shooter had boarded the subway at 69th Street station with a friend, and the two stepped off at City Hall, police said. On the platform, the shooter encountered the 19-year-old, police said, and the two briefly exchanged words.
Both appeared to reach for guns during the argument, Walker said, but only the 14-year-old drew and fired a weapon. The boy did not tell detectives what the argument was about, and it’s unclear whether they knew each other before meeting on the platform.
The victim’s gun was found underneath him, Walker said. He remains hospitalized at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and will likely face charges for illegal gun possession.
Police have not recovered the 14-year-old’s weapon, Walker said, and investigators are working to determine where he got it.