My Life and Times

Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004
DEADLY DAY AT SCHOOLMansion High student killed, at least 2 other hurtBy BARBARA LAKER, CATHERINE LUCEY & MENSAH M. DEANTONE-FACED teen-age boys stared at a thick pool of blood on the Colona Street sidewalk in the darkening shadow of Strawberry Mansion High School.
A half block away, a girl’s black shoe with a bow, a gray school bag and a hairbrush lay abandoned on concrete as nearby school papers drifted in the breeze.
It was 4 p.m. yester day, a little less than an hour since school was dismissed as police marked about 18 bullet casings on 31st street outside the school. Under the loud drone of news helicopters, students and parents stood behind yellow police tape, seemingly numb that one 16-year- old student was dead, and at least two others — possibly three — were injured in a shooting minutes after school let out.
“We live here. This is the ‘hood,” said a 16-year- old student, Kevin, who wouldn’t reveal his last name, as he gazed toward the blood drenched sidewalk. “This doesn’t surprise me. It just makes me want to get out of here."
Jalil Speaks, a 10th-grader who turned 16 last month, was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital within 30 minutes of the shooting . He’d been struck in the left side of his back and right knee.
One girl was hit in the arm; another was wounded in her left leg. Both girls, who were not identified, are 16-year-old sophomores.
Another apparent victim, possibly a student, was being treated at Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital for bullet wounds.
One student said she’d hear d people talking that there may be a shooting after school yesterday, but figured maybe it was just talk. “Nobody really paid much attention,” she said.
Melissa Thomas, Jalil’s aunt, said she didn’t know what sparked the shooting , but said Jalil had been involved in an altercation with some peers a couple of weeks ago.
Other sources said the shooting may have been over money.
But Thomas, 24, said she couldn’t under stand why anyone would kill Jalil.
“He’s nice. He’s quiet. He goes to chur ch Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. He basically stays to himself,” she said. “It’s surprising .”
Shortly after school was dismissed at 3:04 p.m. yesterday, an argument broke out at 32nd Street and Ridge Avenue . It’s unclear where Jalil was at the time.
The crowd then drifted to 31st Street near Susquehanna Avenue, said Police Inspector William Colarulo.
As the argument escalated, shots were fired from a green Pontiac with tinted windows. It has not been determined how many people were in the car, but it’s possible that more than one gun was used.
Students said they heard shots, then tires screeching . Screaming kids scattered. They didn’t know where to go. Last night, police were still searching for the car.
After being shot, Jalil apparently stumbled to Colona Street where he crumpled to the sidewalk near front steps to a wornlooking rowhome with faded green paint.
“I saw (Jalil) after the shooting . Everybody was telling him to stay awake,” said Kevin, who saw blood seeping from Jalil’s chest. “Someone else told him to get up.”
Ameer a Sullivan, an 11th-grader, said when she heard gunshots, she saw a girl fall to the ground. She ran back inside the school. She saw one of the girls who had been shot with blood oozing through her black shirt.
“She was breathing real heavy. She had a big patch of blood on her shirt. She was crying. She could barely breathe,” Ameer a said.
“It’s really scary. It’s made me not want to come to school tomorrow,” she said. “Bullets got no name on them.”
Students who knew Jalil said he wasn’t the kind known to attract trouble.
“He was real sweet. He was the kind of kid who was a big brother, or a little brother. You’d never think he’d get into something like this,” said Shante Johnson, 17. “You wouldn’t find him wanting to fight someone .”
One Strawberry Mansion staffer who asked that his name not be used, said Jalil was “a regular kid, a mediocre student. Even if he was the worst student, people would have been affected because nobody deserves to be shot down in the street.”
He said he spoke to Jalil within an hour before his death. “He didn’t seem any different than any other day,” he said. “Be safe. That’s what I tell all the kids. That is what I told him.”
Minutes after the shooting, some parents rushed to the school to try to find their children. “It’s terrible what’s going on, but this is the way it is,” said a father who didn’t want to give his name but has a 10th grade son.
“One kid is dead and another is going to jail. This is only the beginning, not the end,” he said. “We live in the ‘hood. This is what goes on every day. This is just life here.”
Phila delphia School District CEO Paul Vallas went to the scene and said that before yesterday, the atmosphere at Strawberry Mansion was “relatively quiet.”
Charles Sumter, instructional director for the school’s 9th grade Success Academy, feared the shootings would undermine the school’s recent progress.
“The last five years at Strawberry Mansion have been great. We could not have imagined anything like this,” said Sumter, an 18-year veteran of Strawberry Mansion.
Last school year, Strawberry Mansion was on the state’s “persistently dangerous schools” list, but was removed from the list this year due to improved conditions.
Mike Lodise, president of the Philadelphia School District police officers union, said Strawberry Mansion, which had a fullscale student riot in November, 1997, has been peaceful lately.
“It’s impossible to do anything once they leave the schools,” he said.
“There are just too many guns on the street,” Vallas said. “The challenge we face is not the students’ safety in school, but on their way home .”
Vallas went to Temple University Hospital last night and spoke with the two girls who had been shot. Both were in good condition, he said.
Today there will be a beefed up school police presence at the school, officials said. There are regularly seven school police officers for 875 students.
Community groups will also be present, including Men United for a Better Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Anti-Drug, Anti-Violence Network, Town Watch and Mother s In Charge.
Last night, after most neighbors had gone inside for the night, a young girl with braids jumped rope just yards from the police tape.
Jalil’s family, who live on Taney Street near Montgomery Avenue, said they didn’t want to talk to the Daily News.
But on the corner of Taney Street, his friends started to build a memorial. Against a graffiti scarred wall with the letters RI without a P, a line of 18 white candles were lit on the concrete. Two cops stood nearby to make sure no trouble broke out.
There was none . Just silent despair. Teen-a gers brought teddy bears. One girl wrote RIP on Sponge Bob Square Pants and Patrick before placing them on the ground.
Under a drizzle , teen-age boys sat close to each other on the ground against the wall across the street. Others huddled near the candles.
Tears rolled down their faces. They couldn’t speak. The rain became steady. Still they stood. One girl placed her hands around her friend’s neck and rocked back and forth, over and over. It was a way to find comfort when there was none.
Staff writer Regina Medina contributed to this report
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