Local Teen Playing With Gun Accidentally Shoots And Kills Classmate
By Todd Quinones
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Seventeen-year-old James Becker loved basketball and all things sports related.
He was shot Thursday afternoon inside the third floor of his friend's Kensington house.
At the time Becker's dad was home making spaghetti and meatballs as his son requested.
"I was sitting down and I got a phone call from a friend's sister I grew up with said, I don't know how to tell you this, but your son's been shot in the stomach and he's at the hospital," he said.
Police say 17-year-old Ivan Oberholtzer had been playing with a gun he found on the street in his neighborhood a few days prior.
It went off, shooting Becker once in the stomach.
"He took the clip out, he thought there no bullets in it, but there was one obviously still in the chamber," says Captain James Clark of Philadelphia Police.
Becker was pronounced dead at Hahnemann University hospital hours later.
His father says his son had a big kind heart.
"He loved people, loved his family. He just loved people," he said
Neighbors are devastated.
"When I found out about it all I did was sat and cried, that all you could do," one neighbor told KYW.
Both Becker and Oberholtzer went to Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School.
The school released a statement: "The KCAPA family is deeply saddened by this tragic event and extends its heartfelt sympathy to Jimmy's family. Though it is hard to believe that he is not with us anymore, our fond memories of him and his shy smile will be with us forever."
No one at Oberholtzer's home on Susquehanna Avenue would comment about the incident.
Becker's dad says he never met the suspect.
"All I've been doing all week is just trying to give my son the best burial I can give him," he said.
His viewing will be held Thursday night and his funeral service set for Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Anne's Church on Lehigh Avenue.
