Two teens charged with shooting 16-year-old at City Hall SEPTA platform

Two teens have been arrested and will be charged with shooting a 16-year-old boy in the head after police said they fired into a crowd of young people waiting for the subway at City Hall’s SEPTA station on Thursday night.

Around 9:25 p.m. Thursday, as a group of teens stood on the westbound platform of the Market-Frankford Line, prosecutors said, 18-year-old Quadir Humphrey, with a 16-year-old, fired multiple times as the train approached. As the crowd fled in a panic, police found the teen lying on the ground, shot in the head.

Officers scooped him into their arms and rushed him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he remained in critical condition Friday. Police said the young man was from the Northeast, and was carrying his high school identification card.

Prosecutors said transit police were on the platform when the shooting erupted and used surveillance cameras to quickly identify the shooters. Humphrey and the other teen, whom officials have declined to name until he is formally charged, were arrested at the scene. A weapon was recovered.

The District Attorney’s Office said it expects to charge Humphrey with aggravated assault, conspiracy, illegal gun possession, and related crimes. The 16-year-old is expected to be charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy, and related crimes.

The 16-year-old victim did not appear to have been targeted, said Capt. James Kearney, head of the Police Department’s nonfatal shooting unit. He said video shows the shooters standing together, before the 16-year-old pulls out a gun and Humphrey wantonly fires it toward a group of young people. He said the 16-year-old victim was a bystander with no previous contact with law enforcement, and that he may have been struck by a bullet that ricocheted off the wall behind him.

Now, he said, the teen is fighting for his life.

Humphrey has two previous arrests — for illegal gun possession and auto theft, according to two law enforcement sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The cases are pending in juvenile court. Most juvenile records are sealed, so reporters could not learn the details or status of the cases. A spokesperson for the courts declined to comment.

Thursday’s shooting is at least the fourth time in 10 months that a juvenile has been shot on SEPTA property.

In May, 14-year-old Wort Whipple was shot and killed at the 52nd Street station platform. His slaying came just weeks after a 16-year-old was shot in the face on the station’s steps and seriously wounded. No arrests were made in either shooting.

Then, just a few weeks later, 15-year-old Randy Mills was riding a bus home one night when a man started an argument, then pulled a gun and shot him. Mills died within minutes. Police are still searching for his alleged killer: 19-year-old Haneef Ali.

Staff reporter Rodrigo Torrejón contributed to this article.