A 17-year-old Philadelphia high school scholar-athlete was shot and killed Tuesday morning as he was preparing to leave for school with his mother.
Noah Scurry was a senior at Samuel Fels High School, where he was captain of the school’s boy’s basketball team, KYW reported. He was getting into his mother’s car in an alley behind their Northeast Philly home at about 7:15 a.m. when the gunshots rang out. First responders found the boy with multiple gunshots and rushed him to Jefferson Einstein Hospital, but he did not survive.
Police said on Wednesday they had found white Jeep Grand Cherokee matching the description of a suspect vehicle seen in the neighborhood before the shooting and then speeding away afterward.
Investigators have not said if they have any idea of a motive or suspects in the shooting.
Scurry was one of four people shot in an unsolved murder case in May 2023. Police said Ivan Hall, 66, was shot and killed in that shooting, and three 15-year-olds were wounded. Scurry was one of the teens.
The high school cancelled all games scheduled for this week in the wake of the shooting, and Principal Melissa Rasper said in a letter to families that he was a “beloved student and classmate” who had recently scored the highest of any other Fels student on the SATs.
“Ours is a tight-knit community, and I know that this is difficult news to receive even when it doesn’t occur on school property,” Rasper wrote. “Death is rarely something that is easy to accept, especially when it involves a young person, a classmate and particularly during these times as our city grapples with heightened gun violence.”
The school district is providing counselors for students and staff.
“The principal, coach, players, classmates, peers, are distraught,” Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the School District of Philadelphia, said Tuesday. “This is unimaginable for them. The student was getting in the car with his mom this morning in the back of his home, and he was shot and killed. This student was about to graduate. He probably would’ve had offers to play basketball at colleges across the country. And you know, it’s just a life senselessly cut short.”
A $20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Anyone with information should call the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334 or the PPD tipline at 215-686-8477, WCAU said.
