A 15-year-old boy is being prosecuted as an adult after allegedly shooting a 14-year-old in Coatesville earlier this week, with police saying detectives counted 11 rounds fired before the younger teen was found bleeding a block from the scene. The suspect and an 18-year-old accomplice were tracked down roughly an hour later in a parking lot more than 25 miles away, at the King of Prussia Mall.
Police say the shooting happened near East Chestnut Street and North 8th Avenue just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, according to 6abc Philadelphia, which reported that detectives counted 11 rounds fired in the area. First responders located the 14-year-old victim a block away on East Diamond Street, suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. He was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and, as of Thursday, remained hospitalized in fair condition and is expected to recover, police said.
Coatesville resident Brykeim McGibboney told the station he heard the gunfire and then saw police stop down the block, where they found the victim lying by a dumpster. “The violence in Coatesville needs to come to an end,” McGibboney said, according to the same report. Another resident shared video showing the victim being taken away on a stretcher after the shooting.
Suspect Identified, Chased to King of Prussia
Police identified the alleged shooter as 15-year-old Zaid-An Butcher and said he will be prosecuted as an adult. Butcher was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and related offenses, per NBC10 Philadelphia. Investigators say Butcher sped away from the scene in a vehicle with 18-year-old Jonah Riggs.
Officers found that vehicle about an hour later in the parking lot of the King of Prussia Mall and took both Butcher and Riggs into custody there, the station's report notes. Riggs was charged with carrying a firearm without a license. Both suspects remained in custody, with bail set at $150,000 each, and both had failed to post bail, police said.
Motive Still Unclear, Investigation Ongoing
Detectives are still working to determine what sparked the shooting. The investigation remains active, and anyone with information has been urged to contact Detective Kevin Bochanski at 610-384-2300, per the same account.
Residents in the neighborhood describe a familiar, grinding anxiety. Randy Jackson told the outlet that gunfire is common there and that young people have little to do in the area, while others said they worry about children and elderly neighbors getting caught in the crossfire while simply walking through the neighborhood.
How Pennsylvania Law Moves Juveniles Into Adult Court
Pennsylvania law lays out specific procedures for shifting certain juvenile cases into criminal court. Under state statute, a case can be transferred when the child was at least 14 at the time of the alleged conduct, a transfer hearing is held, and required notice is provided, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. For certain serious offenses, including aggravated assault, the same statute places the burden on the child to show by a preponderance of the evidence that keeping the case in juvenile court would serve the public interest and that the child is amenable to treatment, supervision or rehabilitation as a juvenile.
The Coatesville shooting follows other recent Pennsylvania cases involving teenagers and firearms. In Montgomery County, a 13-year-old boy was charged with murder after a 16-year-old was fatally shot in Norristown, in an incident investigators described as involving two juveniles playing with a gun, according to 6abc. Separately, Chester County authorities made an arrest earlier this year in the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old in Coatesville, though full details of that case have not been made public.
