Teen critically wounded in W. Philly shooting

This post has been updated

A 16-year-old boy is clinging to life Wednesday night after walking out of a corner store and into a hail of bullets on the corner of 62nd Street and Callowhill in West Philadelphia.

Shots rang out around 8:10 p.m. and neighbors said they opened their doors to find the boy lying on the pavement beneath the store's green and yellow awning, bleeding from at least four gunshot wounds.

A group of four teens were in the neighborhood visiting one of their aunts, and were asked to go to the corner store. The victim went inside while three others waited outside on the corner, police said.

When the victim walked outside, a Pontiac - which police said may have been black or green - pulled up to the corner. The passenger rolled his window down and fired two shots at the teens which hit the wall they were standing near. The shooter paused and then fired three more shots at the group, said Lt. John Walker of the Southwest Detective Division.

The group of teens stood outside the store, bystanders rushed inside seeking refuge while neighbors called police.

The boy was shot twice in his head, once in the left side of his chest and once in his left arm, police said. A neighbor said she called the police and heard someone outside screaming, "Please save my brother!"

Police said the shooting may have been a case of a mistaken identity, and that the teens involved were not from the neighborhood and were not known to police.

An officer from the 19th District put the boy into her squad car and rushed him to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was listed in critical condition as of 10:05 p.m.

Police were working to determine whether the store's surveillance system recorded the incident and remained on the scene at 10 p.m. Neighbors said the shooting may have stemmed from an ongoing conflict between neighborhood gangs.

The Pontiac fled east on Callowhill, then south on 61st, police said. A solid description of the suspects was not immediately available.

A group of witnesses were taken to speak with police in the Southwest Detective Division, headquartered on Pine Street near 55th.