Philadelphia shooting: Roxborough neighborhood shaken in wake of devastating shooting
ROXBOROUGH - The Roxborough neighborhood is shaken, after the shooting of five teens at Roxborough High School, one of whom died.
"We just put a candle out, a blue candle, because blue and white is for the football team," Jerome Rockeymore said.
Rockeymore doesn’t live in Roxborough, where the five teens were ambushed following a football scrimmage. He didn’t even know the 14-year-old boy who died, but he and his friends still wanted to come pay their respects.
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"I was just giving my condolences in the neighborhood. I lost a lot of people. My background is similar to what goes on here. You know the scenario," Rockeymore remarked.
The teens, who played for Roxborough, were walking on Pechin Street, back to the high school locker room, when they were fired on.
"I just feel like the innocence always gets taken away when they got a future," Rockeymore went on. "My son is 13, so the best thing I can do is tell him, be aware, be prepared."
A mother, who didn’t want to be identified, lives steps away from where the shooting happened and heard the shots. She has a teen-aged son and is worried. "These kids shouldn’t have to worry about that stuff – to be playing football and get caught in something like that. They shouldn’t have to worry about it. They are supposed to be in sports and other stuff and look what happens."
Another neighbor lent a hand amid the chaos Tuesday.
"I helped two different kids who were shot get into police cruisers," neighbor Budd Reigner stated. "To see that child…that child was 14. God bless those parents. I would never want to go through what they’re going through."