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Man arrested in 2023 shooting of 15-year-old at Philly rec center playground

Djean Williams, 21, was arrested Thursday morning in connection with the April 2023 shooting. Police said he rode a bicycle to the playground of a rec center and shot the teen in the back.

A detective works the crime scene at the Marie Dendy Recreation Center at 10th and Jefferson Streets, where a 15-year-old boy was shot in the back on April 19, 2023.
A detective works the crime scene at the Marie Dendy Recreation Center at 10th and Jefferson Streets, where a 15-year-old boy was shot in the back on April 19, 2023.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
    by Oona Goodin-Smith
    Updated 
    Published 

A man accused of shooting a 15-year-old boy on a playground outside a North Philadelphia recreation center last year has been arrested, police said Thursday.

Djean Williams, 21, was arrested Thursday morning in connection with the April 19, 2023, shooting, in which police said he rode a bicycle to the playground of Marie Dendy Recreation Center and shot the teenager in the back.

Williams will be charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and related crimes, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office said. Because of a probation violation related to carrying a firearm without a license in 2022, he will not be eligible for bail, the spokesperson said.

Williams was apprehended in Philadelphia with collaboration from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, police said. A police spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on a suspected motive in the shooting.

The 15-year-old was taken to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and experienced a long-term injury from the shooting, officials said. A gun was recovered at the scene.

Two days after the shooting, authorities identified Williams as a suspect, which they credited to newly installed security cameras outside the recreation center — part of a “Safe Play Zones” initiative placing 100 cameras at rec centers citywide.

Following the shooting at Dendy, city and state officials announced they would bring trauma-informed therapy and workshops to recreation centers and summer camps in some of the city’s neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence. According to an Inquirer analysis, between 2015 and spring of 2023, at least 629 people were shot within 500 feet of a city rec center, including 87 children.