A 14-year-old boy was killed and four other teens wounded in a shooting after a football scrimmage outside Roxborough High School late Tuesday afternoon, police said, marking the 23rd shooting death of a child this year as Philadelphia continues to face a surge in gun violence.

Just after 4:40 p.m., Roxborough High junior varsity football players had left the field and were headed to their locker-room when four shooters who’d been waiting in a car parked outside the field, jumped out and shot a volley of bullets towards the group of boys, police said.

A 14-year-old was shot in the chest. He collapsed at the bottom of the stairs that led to his locker room.

The boy was rushed by medics to Einstein Medical Center, where he died a short time later. He was a member of Roxborough’s team, but attended Saul High School, a nearby magnet school that focuses on agriculture, Philadelphia School District spokesperson Christina Clark said.

» READ MORE: A 14-year-old boy was killed and 4 other teens wounded in a shooting after a football scrimmage at Roxborough High School

— Ellie Rushing, Kristen A. Graham and Robert Moran

Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson and wide receiver A.J. Brown expressed shock at the shooting at Roxborough High School on Twitter.

“It must stop,” Johnson wrote. “[Praying] for these kids, their families, & their teammates. Sports are supposed to be a safe haven.”

Brown issued a similar message, writing the shooting “breaks my heart.”

“My heart goes out to the kids involved and to the one that lost his life,” Brown wrote. “We have to do better. We have to protect our children man.”

— Nick Vadala

The shooting at Roxborough High School “should shake us all to our core,” Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry T. Jordan said in a statement.

“It should be unfathomable to think a tragedy like this can unfold at our schools, or anywhere in our city, but the devastation wrought by gun violence remains cruel and relentless,” Jordan said. “My thoughts are, of course, with every single person impacted by today’s horror including the entire communities of all impacted schools including those we know at this time: Roxborough, Northeast, Saul, and Boys’ Latin Charter. My heart breaks for the loved ones of the child murdered, and for those injured and their loved ones.”

Jordan added that despite gun violence in Philadelphia, the city does not have “the autonomy to create the gun laws that we need.” Past attempts by the city to enact its own gun laws have faced a legal barrier known as preemption, which prohibits municipalities in the state from creating and enforcing local gun laws.

“Our collective rage and call to action must not wane, because we must continue to shine a light on the crisis of gun violence and we must continue to work towards real, meaningful solutions,” Jordan concluded.

— Nick Vadala

Speaking with other officials at the shooting scene Tuesday, First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford called the situation “disturbing,” adding that the 14-year-old who was killed was “doing what students do: have football games at the end of the day.”

“It’s one of the things that we encourage our kids to do, and then for them not to make it home,” Stanford said. “There’s one family that their son won’t make it home today.”

“We keep having these same conversations you know, day in and day out,” Stanford said. “Something has to stop we’re going to work together to figure that out. But it has to be immediate because this can’t continue”

Standing with the visibly upset Roxborough high principal, Kristin Williams-Smalley, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Jr. said he was “personally disturbed by and quite frankly angry with this senseless act of violence.”

“Schools have always been centers of community, and will continue to be, so it’s absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

Kevin Bethel, chief of safety for Philadelphia schools, said the district will offer trauma support services for students. “It’s going to be a challenge,” he said.

Anyone, he said, could have been struck by the bullets near the high school parking lot. “What used to be a hand fight, is now a gun fight,” he added, calling the fatal shooting a “cowardly act.”

“This used to be a safe haven for our young people,” Bethel said. “And to see that now our young people can’t even come into scrimmage game and be shot is totally unacceptable.”

District Attorney Larry Krasner, too, said he was outraged and shocked by the shooting.

“This is horrifying,” he said. Krasner, whose progressive policies have been tied to Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis by House Republicans seeking to impeach him, defended his success rate in securing convictions for people who have killed with guns.

“We have to work not only on moderate enforcement, but we have to work every way we can on prevention so this is not happening again,” Krasner said. “With those two things together, we can make progress.”

— Oona Goodin-Smith

As members of the Roxborough High School football team walked towards their locker room after a scrimmage, four gunmen sat, waiting in a car parked right outside the field, said Capt. John Walker, head of the Police Department’s nonfatal shooting unit.

As a group of players walked past the car, four people got out and sprayed bullets at the boys, striking five of them.

The shooters briefly chased a 14-year-old and shot him in the chest. The boy collapsed at the bottom of the stairs that led to the locker room. He was rushed by medics to Einstein Hospital, but died shortly after.

Four other players were injured, ages 14 to 17. Three were scooped by responding officers and rushed to Einstein and Temple Hospitals, and remain in stable condition. Another player suffered a graze wound and did not require medical treatment, Walker said.

All were players on Roxborough’s team.

It remains unclear how many shots were fired, but police said it was numerous. Upwards of 73 evidence markers, noting both shell casings and bullet fragments, filled the street. Multiple sets of shoulder pads lay in the grass where the boys were struck.

What led to the shooting remained unclear, Walker said, adding that there have been no other recent shootings or incidents involving players on these teams.

— Ellie Rushing

Mayor Jim Kenney issued a statement on the shooting via Twitter on Tuesday night, writing that “there are no words for what transpired earlier tonight.”

“Another young life has been cut short and others injured by needless violence,” Kenney wrote. “Tonight, a family will begin to grapple with the loss of their loved one. My deepest condolences go out to them.”

— Nick Vadala

Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who graduated from Roxborough High School in 2007, is “absolutely devastated” by the shooting at the school, he said in a tweet.

“I’m absolutely devastated by this mass shooting at my high school alma mater,” Kenyatta wrote. “Please keep these families and communities in your prayers.”

Kenyatta added that “gun crimes are stealing a generation of young people.”

“It has to stop!” he wrote.

— Nick Vadala

Addressing reporters at the scene, First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford said the 14-year-old was “doing what students do: have football games at the end of the day.”

“It’s one of the things that we encourage our kids to do, and then for them not to make it home,” Stanford said. “There’s one family that their son won’t make it home today.”

— Oona Goodin-Smith

The shooting victim who died was a football player on the Roxborough team, but he attended Saul High School, a nearby magnet school that focuses on agriculture, Philadelphia School District spokesperson Christina Clark said.

— Kristen A. Graham

— Monica Herndon and Charles Fox

Chase Gallagher was hanging out at the playground adjacent to Roxborough’s football field when he heard “pop-pop-pop.” His reaction was immediate: run.

Gallagher, 18, lives in the neighborhood and attends Archbishop Carroll High School, in Delaware County, where he plays football. He was shaken by the shooting, and said: “Roxborough compared to other parts of the city, it feels safer, but now it’s not. Hopefully, things get better.”

As a fellow athlete, “I pay my respects to the team,” Gallagher said.

— Kristen A. Graham

The three-way scrimmage between Roxborough, Northeast, and Boys Latin High Schools’ junior varsity football teams had just finished around 4:30 p.m. and players were grabbing their gear and walking towards the bus.

Suddenly, two gunmen ambushed members of the Roxborough team, police said, and unleashed a volley of bullets.

“All I know is, it was a lot,” Miko Kinlaw, 16, a junior at Boys Latin, said of the shots. “Everything escalated so fast.”

Kinlaw and his teammates were walking off the field, a mere 20 yards away from the Roxborough boys, when the shots rang out.

“We just started running. We ran all the way to the other side of the field,” said Justin Williams, a Boys Latin junior.

Kids jumped fences, Williams said, desperate to get away. They left their belongings on the field. Shoulder pads and gear were scattered on the sidewalk Tuesday evening, surrounded by numerous shell casings and evidence markers.

Once in a safe place, Williams used his coach’s phone to call his grandmother, Gilda Reid, who works at the Veterans Affairs office a short drive away. Reid jumped in her car and came as fast as she could, she said. Players were being temporarily held inside the high school, and their guardians were slowly arriving to pick them up.

— Ellie Rushing

— John Duchneskie

One teen was killed and three others wounded in a shooting after a football scrimmage at Roxborough High School late Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Just after 4:40 p.m., players participating in a football scrimmage were walking off the field when the occupants of a light green Ford Explorer SUV opened fire, police said.

A 14-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the left side of his chest was rushed by police to Einstein Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 5:09 p.m.

Another 14-year-old boy shot once in his left thigh also was transported by police to Einstein, where he was listed in stable condition.

A 17-year-old boy shot in his right arm and three times in his left leg was taken by police to Temple University hospital, where he was placed in stable condition.

The fourth victim, whose age was not immediately available, was transported by a medic unit to Einstein. His condition was not available.

— Robert Moran

Four teens were shot late Tuesday afternoon outside Roxborough High School, police said.

Just after 4:40 p.m., police responded to reports of a shooting at the football field and found four victims, whom police believe are members of the school’s football team. Three were taken to Einstein Medical Center — where one victim was described as being in extremely critical condition — and one was transported to Temple University Hospital.

The possible shooters reportedly fled in an SUV, police said.

— Robert Moran