Family, Friends Mourn The Loss Of 13-Year-Old After Germantown Shooting
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- "He's gone. My brother ain't never coming back and it hurts so bad," said a grieving sister who lost her 13-year-old brother.
She came to grips with the reality of the irreplaceable loss on Thursday night.
She wore a rest in peace shirt bearing her 13-year-old brother, Christopher Mackey's picture. He was found with a gunshot wound to the face on Wednesday evening behind a house at 53 East Walnut Lane in the city's Germantown section, just a few houses from his family's home.
He later died at the hospital. Police say he was with a few friends, playing with a gun when neighbors heard the shot. Now, a 15-year-old boy is facing involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly firing the gun.
A 17-year-old boy is charged with recklessly endangering another person for allegedly loading and handling the weapon.
Community activists like Philadelphia Ceasefire have taken up the charge of begging community members to keep guns off the streets and out of the hands of children.
"He was a funny, silly kid. He was smart too," said Amir Lassiter, remembering his late friend.
The aunt of a 4-year-old girl who accidentally shot and killed herself in North Philly last week, came to the vigil to offer condolences from one grieving family to another, both intertwined by a gun tragedy.
