Legs Against Arms 5K race at St. Joseph's University

For many of its students, the neighborhood around South Philadelphia High has been a dangerous place. For 17-year-olds Tyrell Smack and Tyree Parks, it was deadly.

The two would have been seniors this spring, preparing for graduation. In July, Smack was shot and killed; in January, it was Parks' turn, gunned down as he walked home from coaching a youth basketball game.

Another South Philadelphia High student, Sean Allen, wanted to honor their memories and take a few steps toward reversing the school's violent reputation - one made worse by recent attacks on Asian students, and the ensuing controversy about the school's response.

As part of a senior project, Allen helped pull together 40 of his classmates, parents, and friends to participate in the "Legs Against Arms" 5K race held Sunday morning at St. Joseph's University.

"They're not getting a chance to graduate high school," he said of Parks and Smack.

"I just think with us representing the people who didn't make it - maybe it will make their families a little happier," said Allen, 18.

This is the fourth year for the race and children's festival, one of the antiviolence programs sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Founded as an antinuclear group, the organization's Philadelphia chapter began several years ago to focus more of its efforts on fighting the gun battles that play out on the city's streets. The goal of the race is to focus attention on the problem of illegal handguns.

"I can stitch people up all day, but if they're going out to an environment that's not safe for them, I'll end up stitching them up again in two weeks," said Dr. Paul Lyons, the organization's president and a professor of family medicine at Temple University School of Medicine.

The organization sponsors Peaceful Posse, an anti-bullying program that targets middle-school students whose families have been involved in violence.

Mayor Nutter and Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. stood near the entrance to the St. Joseph's track, trading waves with the finishing runners. Nutter said he welcomed any event that might help the cause of tougher gun laws in Pennsylvania.

A huge share of city homicides, he said, are committed with "illegal weapons in the hands of people who shouldn't have them." But gun-control advocates have had little success getting stricter controls through the Pennsylvania legislature.

"We're morally right, and we're going to be legislatively right," Nutter said. "We will never go away."

Many of the 650 runners were on teams organized to remember victims of gun violence. "Team Trish," one of the largest, had about 45 friends and family of Trish McDermott, a 48-year-old mother of two who was shot near Ninth and Market Streets in 2005 by a confessed serial killer.

"It's a nice way to remember her," said McDermott's sister, Margie Illenberger. "You can't change the past. You can't bring her back, but I do know a bunch of kids will have some fun."

Sean Allen says he was friends with Parks since eighth grade, when they played football together on the South Philly Flames. Parks, a defensive tackle, was shot just days after learning he'd won a football scholarship to Bloomsburg University.

Parks' mother, Lorraine Carter, walking the course with her friend Tarresha Camara, lost her oldest son, Dwayne, to a shooting in 2002. Tyree was her youngest.

"Everyone's out here for the same cause, the same reason," she said with a smile. But she said she was still waiting for justice; there has still not been an arrest in the case.

"No one has come forward to say anything," she said.

Smack's parents said it was comforting to know their son was remembered.

Smack's father, Troy Smack, said he felt his son was there, watching the race: "I think about him every day," he said. "I just don't want my son's murder to be in vain."