Cops: Motive unclear in teen’s fatal shooting at South Philly gas station

Sajjad Hossain stood Friday in the parking lot of a South Philadelphia gas station where on Thursday night 16 shots were fired toward a group of teens, hitting two 15-year-old boys, one of whom died.

He pointed to four chalk circles on the ground where police had recovered shell casings, and showed where bullets hit the garage doors of the station's auto-repair shop. The shooting was captured on the station's surveillance video, which Hossain played after showing it to two police officers.

The black-and-white nighttime video showed a car pulling up about 8 p.m. in front of the Gulf station, on Passyunk Avenue near 25th Street, and a person getting out, running, and immediately firing.

Hossain, 22, who was working inside the station's small convenience store, said things happened quickly after the shooter exited the rear passenger seat of the white sedan.

"It happened in 10 seconds," he said.

Police said the two teens were among four or five youths outside the convenience store. One, Rasul Benson, 15, of Point Breeze, was taken by police to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterward from a gunshot wound to the chest.

An unidentified boy, also 15, who was shot in the right shoulder, ran to the nearby First Police District headquarters at 24th and Wolf Streets, from which he was taken to Penn Presbyterian. He was in stable condition there Friday, police said.

Homicide Capt. John Ryan said Friday afternoon that police were still trying to determine the motive behind the shooting. "Presumably one of the youths being chased" was targeted, said Ryan, adding that it was too early to know which.

The shooter got back inside the car, which was driven from the scene, police said.

Benson, of the 1500 block of Ellsworth Street, was a student at Parkway West High School in West Philadelphia. Outside his home Friday, his father declined to comment.

Benson's death increased the city's homicide total to 257 Thursday night, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year. He was the 22nd person age 18 or under to be killed in the city this year, the highest number for the same period over the past five years.

Parkway West principal Kathleen McCladdie sent a letter to parents Friday urging them to talk to their kids about their feelings.

"Sudden death is always painful to understand, and your child may experience signs of stress," she wrote, according to the letter provided by the School District. She noted that the district's emergency/crisis response team was at the school Friday to provide counseling and support.

"On behalf of Parkway West High School, I have extended our sincere condolences to the family of Rasul Benson​ ​on this sad occasion," she wrote.