Snowball Fight Leads To Shooting

While most Philadelphians spent the weekend indoors watching injuries befall our sports teams and movies they haven’t seen win awards, there still was some snow on the ground from Friday’s first real snowfall of the winter. And so smarter Philadelphians spent most of their time playing in the snow. (Me, I spent most of the weekend indoors sick. Duh.)

A few tow-headed residents even decided to throw snowballs at people, a tradition of young brats since snow was invented. Unfortunately, uh, somebody shot one of the teenagers throwing snowballs. Two sixteen year olds were having a snowball fight when one of their throws accidentally hit a neighbor in the face. And, then, the neighbor returned and shot one of ‘em in the head at point blank range.

Meanwhile, the Daily News account is full of WTF moments:

A man Travis said he knows only as Omar, in his early 30s, witnessed the incident and chastised the teens for throwing snowballs at the man. The boys sassed him and Omar told the boys, “I’m going home to get my gun and you better not be here when I come back.”

Travis said through sobs that he warned Tavin, who was visiting for the day, that he knew Omar and had seen his gun. He told Tavin to get out of sight. Tavin went into a friend’s house, where other teens urged him to stay indoors.

Instead, he went outside and sat on the steps. Omar came back with a gun about 4:45 p.m. and found Tavin, witnesses said. “I’m not going to fight you,” Tavin told the man, witnesses said. “If you want to shoot me, shoot me.”

The man fired one shot that hit Tavin in the head, then he jogged toward Eleanor Street, about a block away.

Omar, really setting a good example for everyone, it seems.

Update: Tavin sadly passed away later Monday.