The 15-year-old collapsed along Richmond Street after being shot, prompting friends and two passing medical professionals to provide emergency aid.
PHILADELPHIA — Two passing medical professionals stopped to help a 15-year-old boy after he was shot near a Port Richmond gas station on Halloween night, joining the teenager’s friends in efforts to save him before police rushed him to a hospital.
The teenager later died, and Philadelphia police took a 40-year-old man into custody in connection with the shooting. Police Inspector D.F. Pace said investigators were still trying to establish what led to the violence near Richmond Street and Castor Avenue shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday.
Police said the teenager had been with a group of other young people near a Sunoco gas station when the shooting occurred. NBC10 reported that Pace said the teen and the 40-year-old man had been involved in an argument before the shooting. Investigators had not publicly provided details about what the argument concerned or said whether the two knew each other beforehand.
After being struck, the boy ran along Richmond Street before collapsing nearby, police said. His friends began trying to help him. Two medical professionals who were driving through the area saw the activity around the teenager, stopped their vehicle and joined the emergency response before officers arrived.
Pace said the medical professionals performed lifesaving measures at the scene. Their intervention did not ultimately save the teenager, but police said it continued until officers could get him to medical care. He was transported to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and was pronounced dead there. Local reports citing police placed the time of death at 7:06 p.m.
The response unfolded quickly after the shooting. Officers gathered information from people near the scene and developed a description or identification of the person they believed was involved, police said. Investigators then went to a home close to the shooting scene and found the 40-year-old man there.
Police took the man into custody shortly afterward. NBC10 reported that a weapon was recovered, citing Pace. Authorities had not released the man’s name or publicly announced charges as of Sunday morning, and being taken into custody does not by itself establish criminal guilt.
The investigation is also relying on surveillance video from the area. Police said video captured the shooting, giving detectives evidence they can compare with witness accounts and other information collected in the neighborhood. Investigators have not publicly described everything visible on the recording.
The teenager’s identity had not been publicly released in the reports available Sunday morning. Police also had not announced a motive. The case remains under investigation as detectives examine the surveillance footage, the recovered evidence and the circumstances surrounding the encounter at the gas station.
The shooting was one of several violent incidents reported across Philadelphia on Halloween night, but police have not said the Port Richmond killing was connected to the other cases. In Port Richmond, the immediate investigation remains centered on what happened before the gunfire and the evidence gathered after the teenager collapsed.
Author note: Last updated November 1, 2026.