Philadelphia's Roxborough High School football team on Friday played its first game since a 14-year-old player was killed during a shooting that also wounded four other teens outside the school, showing great effort in a close 30-22 loss to cross-city rival Kensington High.
The team is dedicating the season to Nicolas Elizalde, who was caught in the crossfire when five gunmen ambushed a group of teens after a scrimmage involving Roxborough and two other schools, reported NBC10 partner KYW Newsradio.
“Our team is bonded together. Unfortunately, they were bonded before, but now this is something that can never separate them. And they’re surviving,” Roxborough High School Principal Kristin Williams-Smalley told KYW.
Four of the five who were shot – Nicolas and two other 14-year-olds, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old – were members of the Roxborough High School football team, according to police.
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The gunmen apparently targeted a specific group as they unleashed a barrage of bullets behind the school on Sept. 27. Police said Nicolas was an innocent bystander and not the target of the attack.
Two of what are believed to be six suspects have been arrested thus far. On Thursday, 17-year-old Zyhied Jones was charged with murder. That followed the arrest and murder charges a day earlier against 21-year-old Yaaseen Bivins.
Investigators continue to search for the remaining suspects, including 16-year-old Dayron Burney-Thorn, whom police have labeled “the person responsible” for the shooting.
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Williams-Smalley, the Roxborough High School principal, said the school community is rallying behind the football team. They played at 3 p.m.
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
