A 15-year-old boy, shot in Wissinoming while getting a case of water bottles from his dad’s car, has died

A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head in Wissinoming last week while grabbing a case of water bottles from his father’s car has died, according to his family and Philadelphia police.

Sean Toomey, of the 6200 block of Mulberry Street, was shot around 9:10 p.m. Thursday outside his family’s house on that block, police said.

His aunt, Anna Toomey, said Monday that the teen had been inside the house before going out to retrieve the case of water when he was shot and collapsed on a neighbor’s lawn.

Officers who responded took him to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, where he was initially placed in critical condition. He was pronounced dead on Friday afternoon, police said Monday.

Homicide Capt. Jason Smith said Monday that police believe the killing is likely connected to a group of three men who had attempted at least two robberies in the area in the moments before the shooting. Still, Smith said it remained unclear if the group had tried to rob Toomey — or if Toomey had been struck by a stray bullet fired as the men ran away from one of their other crimes.

According to Smith, the group first tried to rob a woman who was using an ATM around 9 p.m. at the corner of Frankford Avenue and Robbins Street. A few minutes after that, Smith said, detectives believe the same group tried to steal a car from a woman pulling into the parking lot of an apartment complex around the corner, on the 6200 block of Mulberry Street.

The men pulled on the door handles of the woman’s car, Smith said, but ran away after noticing her young son in the back seat. The woman then called her boyfriend to look for the suspects, Smith said, and when he came out of his apartment and walked toward the street, the couple heard a series of gunshots.

Smith said it was not clear why the gunman opened fire or how one of the shots struck Toomey. He said investigators were considering a number of possibilities, such as a wayward shot hitting Toomey as the gunman fired back toward the boyfriend, or the group attempting to rob Toomey, who would have been near his father’s car at the time.

Police recovered four fired cartridge casings from a 9mm handgun at the scene, Smith said.

The teen’s father, John, wrote on Facebook that he was “truly devastated” by his son’s death: “Nothing will be the same ever ever again.”

The killing came as the city’s gun violence crisis has continued at an unprecedented pace. Through Sunday, police statistics show, 120 people have been killed in homicides this year, a 3% increase over last year’s record-setting pace. More than 370 people have been wounded in shootings in 2022, statistics show.

Police said three other people were slain over the weekend: A 28-year-old man was found dead from several gunshot wounds on the 400 block of Kingsley Street, in Wissahickon, around 11:50 p.m. Sunday; a 30-year-old man died after being shot on the 800 block of East Willard Street in Kensington around 11 p.m. Sunday; and 33-year-old Eric Sampson, of West Philadelphia, was fatally shot around 12:20 a.m. Friday on the 3500 block of Kensington Avenue in Kensington.

Police did not report arrests in any of those cases.