Shot in the back, graduate looks ahead

EVEN WITH A BULLET still lodged in his back, Khiry Caldwell said he's undeterred in his plans to go to college, earn a degree and become a juvenile-probation officer.

Some have called the youth lucky to survive his shooting right after his high-school graduation on Tuesday. Caldwell, 18, explains it a little differently, saying he's just grateful to be alive.

"[The shooting] made me look at things differently," he said. "I am just really appreciative."

"God took that bullet for him," said his mother, Kathy Caldwell, who instinctively placed a protective arm over her son's shoulder.

Yesterday, Khiry sat at his dining-room table surrounded by family and friends inside his Strawberry Mansion rowhouse, hours after being released from Temple University Hospital.

His parents, Amin and Kathy Caldwell, said their son was an innocent bystander who was struck in the back by a stray bullet, less than an hour after receiving his diploma from Strawberry Mansion High School at Temple's Liacouras Center on Tuesday.

According to police, a brawl between two rival groups from the high school erupted outside the Wendy's next door to the center, on Broad Street between Cecil B. Moore and Montgomery avenues.

As Temple police tried to break up the scuffle, one of the young men pulled out a gun and started firing, with one of the stray bullets striking Caldwell.

Five suspects were taken into custody, questioned and later released, police said. No charges have been filed. A gun hasn't been recovered, but investigators found three shell casings at the scene.

Detectives were reviewing surveillance footage from Temple and nearby businesses, and cops were searching subway platforms and canvassing the area for other suspects.

"This was some sort of fight over a girl being choked about a month ago," said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore. "[They] decided to come together and settle it [Tuesday]."

"I was just scared," said Khiry Caldwell. "I just wanted to get out of there."

The youth declined to recount the details of that harrowing day, and said he would rather look to the future. "I don't want to dwell on the past," he said.

Instead, the teenager anticipates the trip to North Carolina, where he'll attend Shaw University as a freshman in the fall.

He said he's "in a rush to go out and experience new things, get away from things.

"I just want to get away from all the nonsense," he said.

Living in a neighborhood rocked by crime, Caldwell said he has witnessed his share of violence not far from his home on 33rd Street near Cumberland.

But his father, Amin, a youth worker with the Town Watch Services, said that his son worked long hours at a neighborhood Sunoco station just to stay away from the trouble that others his age fell into.

Khiry said it's the many troubled youth who populate the city that motivated him to pursue a career as a juvenile-probation officer.

"I want to help young people in the inner city," he said.

The only remorse Khiry said he felt was missing out on the last day of school.

Today marks the official end to the school year and dozens of classmates and teachers called him and wished him well, he said.

The teen is up and about, complaining only of a slight backache. But the pain is the last thing on his mind.

"I'm uncomfortable, but I'm just happy to be up," he said.

His sister Ameena, 19, is grateful too.

"I couldn't imagine what it would be like without him," she said. "I've been kind of attached to him since" the shooting.

His mother, Kathy, said the shooter deserves to go to jail, but not for retribution.

"Someone needs to get him off the streets," she said of the unknown gunman. "He's still salvageable. He can still be a great part of society."

Yesterday, Khiry relished all the attention - especially from his two big sisters, who pampered him and cooked him a hearty homecoming meal.

"I like it [the attention]," he said. "They're treating me better." *

Staff writer Christine Olley

contributedto this report.