13-year-old girl shot Friday was at the traffic cone beating of a 73-year-old man, DA said
The girl was present as the June 24 traffic cone beating unfolded, but did not strike the man with the cone, authorities said, and was not charged with any crimes.
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A 13-year-old girl who was injured in a shooting on Friday evening was one of the teens at the scene of the fatal beating of a 73-year-old man last month, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Monday.
The girl was shot in the jaw outside her Germantown home at 6:41 p.m. after two young men with guns fired a single shot, said Capt. John Walker, head of the Philadelphia Police Department’s nonfatal shooting unit. As the girl ran from the shooting, she fell and broke her femur, Walker said.
Investigators have not been able to identify a motive in the shooting, and Krasner declined to speculate on whether the shooting was in any way related to the traffic cone incident. The girl remains in stable condition — but in serious pain — at Einstein Medical Center, Walker said, and because of the nature of her injuries, police have not yet been able to interview her about what happened.
» READ MORE: There’s more to the story of the kids who fatally beat a 73-year-old man with a traffic cone, lawyers say
The girl was part of the group of seven kids present during the beating of 73-year-old James Lambert Jr. in North Philadelphia on June 24 — an incident that drew national attention to the city’s homicide crisis. After a brief altercation, two 14-year-olds hit Lambert multiple times with an orange traffic cone, and he died from a head injury the next day. Those two teens have been charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy.
The girl who was shot on Friday was present as the beating unfolded, police said, but surveillance video showed that she did not take part in the assault. She did not strike Lambert, police said, and was not charged with any crimes.
In a related development, law enforcement officials said Monday that they are investigating potential threats to Lambert’s family.
Joanne Pescatore, chief of the DA’s homicide unit, declined to share details on the nature of the threats. But she said the family has “already been victimized once” by Lambert’s death, and prosecutors are investigating the threat allegations “as we speak.”