‘It’s surreal.’ After Roxborough shootings, officials, community leaders plead for an end to gun violence

The five shooters had been waiting in an SUV near Roxborough High School for several minutes.

Then, as teenage football players walked past and headed for locker rooms, the five jumped out of the gray Ford Explorer and began firing, unloading more than 60 shots, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding four others.

These were among the new details offered by city officials about a crime that has devastated students, staff, and parents at several schools, and attracted calls for peace from community members, politicians, and athletes including some Eagles players.

At a news conference, officials showed surveillance video that depicted parts of the incident, however, no clearly identifying facial features of the assailants were evident.

» READ MORE: Here is an overview of gun violence in Philadelphia

And a host of questions remained unanswered Wednesday, including who the suspects were and why they attacked the teens.

Homicide Capt. Jason Smith said the teen who was killed — Nicolas Elizalde, 14, of Havertown, Delaware County — appeared to be “a totally innocent victim,” fatally struck in the chest during the hail of gunfire. And although Smith and others said they believed the assailants had intentionally sought to shoot someone in the group walking toward the locker rooms, investigators were not yet certain who the target may have been.

“Do we believe it was targeted? Yes,” said Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. “Who was the target? We’re still working to determine that.”

At the news conference, Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner, School Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and others pleaded with community members to provide information to police about the case so that investigators can identify the shooters.

“This violence cannot and will not be tolerated, and we will do everything we can to bring those responsible to justice,” Kenney said.

The slaying marked the 23rd shooting death of a child in the city this year as the gun violence continued at near-record levels. Through Tuesday, police statistics show, 401 people have been killed in homicides in 2022 — a slight decrease compared to last year’s pace, but well above all other years in recent memory.

Students and staff at Roxborough and Saul High Schools — which some of the victims attended — cried and consoled each other throughout the day Wednesday while trying to process their grief and fear, an official for the teacher’s union said.

“It’s surreal, for sure,” said Ashley Hunter, the mother of one of the wounded, while visiting her son at a hospital. “I’m just so numb to it. It’s happening every day. … We’re getting out of here. This city is getting crazy.”

And Elizalde’s mother was too distraught to speak about the killing — in disbelief that gun violence, which she had often read about, claimed the life of her son.

“I read all those articles,” Meredith Elizalde said by phone. “I didn’t think I’d be one of those articles.”

Lanay Williams, a friend of Elizalde and freshman at Roxborough High, said, “I cried like eight times today. I talked to my counselor and my art teacher about what’d happened and I just broke down.”

The shooting Tuesday happened just hours after Kenney signed an executive order banning guns from city recreation centers, parks, and city pools.

On Wednesday, he said that action remained one important part of the city’s overall public safety plan. Deputy Commissioner Joel Dales also said police — who have traditionally focused on deploying officers to monitor football games with spectators — had requested a list of scrimmages from the district and would begin evaluating when and how to cover those as well.

“We can’t cover them all — there’s numerous scrimmages across the city,” Dales said. “But if we receive any information whatsoever that there may be problems or issues … we will have police officers present.”

Kevin Bethel, the district’s school-safety chief, said the district had been running a “safe corridors” program in Roxborough, placing unarmed monitors outside the school at arrival and dismissal.

“But [safe corridors] doesn’t stop that,” Bethel said, while pointing at video of the crime. “Unfortunately, those individuals who shot on that street could care less who was out on the road.”

Smith, the homicide captain, said Tuesday’s shooting happened shortly after 4:30 p.m., not long after a 90-minute scrimmage among football squads from Roxborough, Northeast High, and Boys Latin Charter School.

In the surveillance video, one of the assailants chased a victim — a 17-year-old who was not on the football teams — along the street, shooting until he ran out of bullets, Smith said.

Elizalde was struck in the chest and taken to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:09 p.m.

The 17-year-old was shot in the arm and leg and was in stable condition at Temple University Hospital, police said.

A 14-year-old was struck in the thigh; another 14-year-old was grazed in the ankle; and a 15-year-old was shot in the leg, police said. All were reported in stable condition.

The shooters, meanwhile, jumped back in the SUV and drove away, said Smith, who believes a sixth person may have been behind the wheel and serving as a getaway driver. The shooters wore masks and some appeared to have been wearing gloves, and Smith said they appeared to have been young people, though he said investigators had not identified any yet or determined if they attended the school.

Police found the car late Wednesday night in the parking lot of the Dream Boutique Adult Entertainment Center on the 6000 block of Passyunk Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. Vanore declined to say if it had a valid license plate.

Vanore also said police were investigating the possibility that the shooting was connected to a fight or argument at the school earlier that day, but were not certain if it involved any of the victims.

Officials were offering a total reward of $45,000 for information leading to arrests and convictions.

Staff writers Kerith Gabriel, Kristen A. Graham, Erin McCarthy, Craig R. McCoy, and Ellie Rushing contributed to this article.