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A 16-year-old was fatally shot in Southwest Philadelphia, the second teen killed in a shooting in one week

The teen, who has not been identified by police, is the eighth child to be fatally shot in Philadelphia this year.

Philadelphia police investigate a shooting.
Philadelphia police investigate a shooting.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot in Southwest Philadelphia on Thursday morning, police said — the second teen to die from a gunshot in Philadelphia in less than a week.

Police said the teen was shot twice in the head about 10:30 a.m. near 53rd Street and Grays Avenue. Police took him to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

Police said the preliminary investigation suggests the teen may have been part of a group attempting to break into a rowhouse on the street. Detectives found a ladder propped up against the side of a rowhouse on Grays Avenue, and an air-conditioning unit appeared to have been ripped from the second-story window of one rowhouse.

There was at least one bullet hole through the glass of that second-story window, police said, and the shot appeared to have been fired from inside the house. Police found blood inside, but the teen was found collapsed about 50 yards away in the middle of 53rd Street.

Initially, police thought there were people inside the house, but it was empty when SWAT officers cleared it. Crime scene officers and detectives were collecting evidence from inside Thursday afternoon.

Police said the teen, whose name has not been released, did not live in the neighborhood where he was shot.

He is the second child to die from gun violence in Philadelphia in less than a week, and the eighth to be fatally shot this year. More than 40 people under 18 have been injured in shootings, according to city data.

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Just last Thursday night, 16-year-old Nafis Betrand-Hill was fatally shot near his home in North Philadelphia.

Other victims this year include Semaj Richardson, 16; Shaheed Saoud, 16; Isaiah Odom, 17; Anthony Pinckney, 14; Neko Rivera, 15; and Devin Weedon, 15.