A vibrant 13-year-old cheerleader was killed after teens mishandled a gun and it went off, police say

The sound of gunfire sent the residents of North Bailey Street running out of their homes Wednesday night, searching for whomever may have been shot.

Quickly, they learned, the noise had come from the ivory rowhouse in the center of the block — and even worse, they discovered, it was Alaysia Smith, the vibrant teen girl from around the way, who’d been struck.

As soon as Smith’s grandmother, who lived across the street, heard her granddaughter’s name, she ran into the house, said Roscoe Bruce, the girl’s grandfather. Upstairs, in a rear bedroom, she found the 13-year-old lying unconscious, a gunshot wound to her chest.

She attempted to resuscitate Smith until Philadelphia police arrived, Bruce said, but it was fleeting. Smith died at Temple University Hospital just after 8 p.m.

Investigators believe Smith — who had just celebrated her 13th birthday last month — was hanging out with at least four friends inside the North Philadelphia house when someone produced a gun, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore. One of the teens mishandled the weapon, Vanore said, and it went off, striking Smith in the chest.

Some of the children ran out, while others sought help, Vanore said. Police have not recovered the gun, he said, and are working to interview people about what happened. No arrests have been made.

The house where Smith was killed was that of a close friend, said Bruce, who works as a coordinator for the Philadelphia Anti-Violence Anti-Drug Network.

Smith, an eighth grader at Wissahickon Charter School’s Fernhill campus, had grown up on the 2800 block of North Bailey Street, where the shooting took place, and lived on adjacent West Somerset Street, said Bruce. Her mother, grandparents, and extended relatives all live within a few blocks of one another. Neighbors recalled watching her bounce basketballs and play hopscotch in the streets as a toddler, and practice dances with her siblings as she grew into a teen.

“I watched her grow up,” said Jani Lee, a 23-year-old neighbor. “She and her brother loved to play outside and make TikTok dances, but they had strict parents. They were raised well. You’d see them go home at dark.”

“You guard them as much as you can, you take care of them as much as you can, but you just can’t hide them from everything, no matter how hard you try,” Bruce said. “It’s a battle for good parents. You let your kid go out the house and the people that they connect with … can make bad things look exciting. It looks like that’s what happened here.”

Philadelphia officials have encouraged parents to regularly search their kids’ rooms and belongings, as they say guns are more frequently ending up in the hands of teens. And local health-care workers have urged gun owners to store their weapons in a safe, separate from ammunition. Doctors at Temple, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania are now screening parents and teens for gun ownership, and offer free cable locks for firearms.

These precautions, experts say, could prevent deaths — like Smith’s.

“We are all in this together,” Bruce said. “This can happen to any of us.”

Smith, known by friends and family as “Lay Lay,” was the second-oldest of five on her mother’s side, he said. At just 13, she was almost 5-foot-10. She kept her hair in long waves, and enjoyed getting her nails done with friends. She was a cheerleader for the Black Ops youth cheer squad.

“If she had one flaw, it was that she was growing up too fast,” he said.

She was quiet and laid-back, he said, but also bubbly and vibrant once comfortable around someone. Despite her calm demeanor, he said, she could bring a fierce attitude. She was raised Christian, but had recently started exploring Islam, taking after her father, and dressed in Muslim garb, he said.

“Alaysia attended our school since kindergarten and made an impression on everyone she met,” officials with Wissahickon Charter wrote in a statement. “She was a beautiful, vibrant person who we had the privilege to watch grow over many years. She will be terribly missed by our school community.”

On Thursday, dozens gathered outside the family’s home in support, embracing in the street and sharing tears.

One resident, who lives across from Smith’s grandmother, broke down at the mere sound of the child’s name. There was little she could say beside: “By the grace of God, we’re gonna make it.”