Penn State student killed, her father and grandfather shot during West Philly bar fight

In anticipation of Teacher Appreciation Week, Dominique Oglesby took to her Facebook account last May to praise Steve Marchion, her English instructor at Robert E. Lamberton High School in Overbrook Park.

"Man, I had never been pushed or challenged the way he challenged me," wrote Oglesby, who had graduated and was then a student at Penn State's Harrisburg campus. "He made me appreciate the art of reading and writing! One of the main reasons I am a humanities major today!"

On Monday, Marchion announced on his Facebook account that his former student had died: "Yesterday this world was robbed of an amazing woman."

Oglesby was fatally shot during an argument at a West Philadelphia bar. Her father and grandfather were also shot after they arrived and the fight escalated, police said.

She was shot once in the back outside the Galaxy West Lounge on the 5200 block of Market Street around 4:20 p.m. Sunday, police said.

Homicide Capt. John Ryan said the shooting occurred after Oglesby was involved in an argument with another woman and a man inside the bar. The man, whom police did not identify, twice tried to stop the argument, Ryan said. But tensions rose, Oglesby's family members arrived, and a "whole big melee [broke] out," the police captain said.

He said it didn't appear that Oglesby or her relatives previously knew the man and woman on the other side of the argument, and he declined to offer further details on the potential source of the dispute.

"Someone produces a firearm and irrecoverable mistakes" occur, Ryan said.

She was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead at 4:42 p.m.

Her father, 42, was struck in a foot, and her grandfather, 66, was hit in an arm. Police said both men were listed in stable condition. Authorities did not name them.

Attempts to reach Oglesby's family were not successful Monday afternoon. One man who described himself as Oglesby's cousin lamented her passing on Facebook.

A Penn State spokesperson said Oglesby was scheduled to graduate from the university's Harrisburg campus this spring.

Ryan said the investigation was ongoing.

On Facebook, Oglesby shared posts about her singing, family, the A's she got in her classes at Penn State, and her Christian faith. She commented about social issues and posted at least one photo of her cat, Disney.

Marchion, the English teacher at Lamberton High School, wrote on Facebook that Oglesby was "bright, funny, hard-working, and passionate. She would call me out when she thought I was wrong and she would argue and defend her position until the bell rang. Dom would even come back and conceded her point the next day if she found a reason to change her position."

In particular, Marchion recalled one of his lessons on an Andre Dubus short story, "The Killings," and how he understood the character of the father and his need for revenge after the murder of his son.

Marchion wrote: "Class stopped for the remaining 20 minutes as Dom argued that no amount of hurt or pain or anger or sorrow could ever justify taking another person's life."

He concluded: "please know that every life you touched is better now having had you in it."

Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.