The mother of a 17-year-old boy gunned down on a Philadelphia street Monday night says the bullet that took her son's life wasn't meant for him.
"It wasn't for him. It was actually for someone else. That's how they're telling me," Shantice Wideman told NBC10's Monique Braxton in an exclusive interview.
Wideman's son, Quantico Brunson, who goes by the nickname Reno, was outside near the intersection of Stirling and Hawthorne streets in the Mayfair neighborhood where he lived with his parents when gunfire erupted about 9 p.m. Police on Tuesday said they believe based on ballistic evidence that there may have been more than one shooting, and that as many as eight shots could have been fired.
Surveillance video from a corner store shows Brunson talking with some people outside the store. A white vehicle pulls up outside the store, and the group begins to walk away down the block, away from the view of the cameras. Moments later, a man exits a different car parked at the corner, then runs across the street to the white car and gets in the passenger side just before he car takes off.
Police say in the aftermath, Brunson was left with a gunshot wound to his torso, and a 16-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man he was with were each left with serious gunshot wounds. Brunson and the other teen were taken to area hospitals, where Brunson succumbed to his injuries. The other teen remained in critical condition Tuesday.
Police said they discovered the older victim only when he showed up at 15th Police District headquarters, about two blocks from the shooting scene at Harbison and Levick, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the neck. That man also remained in critical condition at a local hospital Tuesday.
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Brunson's death devastated his mother and father, who said he was a normal 17-year-old kid who liked to joke around and play football.
"My son is gonna be missed by everyone. Not just family and friends," Nasir Wideman, Brunson's father, said.
"He's silly. He's always joking, dancing. He's just silly. A silly 17-year-old," Brunson's mother said, wiping tears form her cheek.
Police said they found a lost sneaker believed to have been worn by the shooter, a bag of marijuana and a revolver with two spent shell casings inside it at the scene. Commissioner Richard Ross said investigators also found six spent shell casings from a different gun, leading police to believe there was more than one shooter. Ross said police as of Tuesday morning still had no idea what motivated the shooting.
Investigators are hoping the items found at the scene, along with surveillance video, will help them track down the person -- or people -- responsible for Brunson's death. Police said witnesses recounted seeing a gunman dressed in all black fleeing the scene of the shooting wearing only one sneaker.
No arrests were made as of Tuesday afternoon.
