Man surrenders in Philly killing of girl

Shakuwrah Muhammad's parents said they held no animosity for the man who killed their youngest and most extroverted daughter in a barrage of stray bullets during the weekend.

"He made a terrible, terrible mistake, but we are peace-loving," said her mother, Marcia Butler. "If nothing else, we would just want him to know that he robbed us. . . . I want the world to see how wonderful Shakuwrah was."

As Butler was discussing her daughter around 5 p.m. Monday, 19-year-old Malik Carter was surrendering to Philadelphia police. Carter faces murder and other charges.

"Everybody knew him," said Capt. James Clark, commander of the Homicide Unit. "He couldn't hide."

The 18-year-old woman Carter was accused of killing had graduated last week from Central High School, one of the city's most prestigious public schools.

She was a lively, spirited young woman with abounding interests in photography, languages, and music, and had a fearlessness to match, her parents said.

"One of her qualities that led to this tragic accident was her fearlessness," said her father, Salaam Muhammad. "She would go anywhere at any time."

On Friday night, Shakuwrah Muhammad was at a friend's house just blocks from her West Oak Lane home. Shortly after midnight, she volunteered to walk another friend to the bus stop. Along the way, a group of males joined them. They said they couldn't follow them all they way to the bus stop because they were feuding with another group that hung out near there.

"Just as he was saying that . . . the shots rang out," Butler said.

Carter fired about nine times at the males, striking Muhammad instead, police said. Her friend ran to Muhammad's Briar Road home and pounded on the door.

"That was the moment that changed my life," Butler said. She raced to the crime scene, at Rugby and Johnson Streets, thinking, "Just let her be alive, just let her be alive."

Police took Butler to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where she learned that her daughter had been declared dead around 1 a.m. Saturday.

"She was a completely innocent victim," Clark said.

Muhammad's death sparked an outpouring of support, including a candlelight vigil Monday night in which more than 300 people came to the grassy area in front of Central High. One large photo identified her as "Shakuwrah 'Cool Aid' Muhammad,' in apparent reference to a nickname. Another read, "Our friend, our sister, our angel."

Lynada Martinez, an assistant principal at Central, knew Muhammad because she was a member of the pep squad. Current and former pep-squad members wore their red pleated skirts with yellow trim in honor of Muhammad.

"If one of us goes down, we're all down," Martinez said.

Craig Eugene Williamscq, 18, was also a part of Central's graduating class this spring and had classes with Muhammad.

"Funny and never sad," Williams said of Muhammad.

Ironically, Wiliams said he did his senior project on gun violence but couldn't present it and missed the graduation ceremony because he was shot three times.

"People just don't care about other people's lives," Williams said.

Butler, who teaches both junior high and high school science at the New Media Technology Charter School, said the support from her daughter's peers had been so moving because she taught many of them.

Butler said her daughter had inherited a love of photography from her. Muhammad planned to take her foundational courses at Community College of Philadelphia in the fall while seeking out a program to learn forensic photography.

Her love of music was inherited from her father, a practitioner of naturopathic medicine who sings with the Delfonics and the Original Blue Notes.

The youngest of four sisters, Shakuwrah was something of a free spirit who learned sign language, texted her mother in Spanish, and enjoyed jazz - "an oddity for someone her age," her father said.

"She didn't mind paddling upstream," he said. "She wasn't a person swayed by the crowd."

As for Carter, Muhammad described him as "a victim as well," but said he now had a responsibility that he must accept.

"He can lead the charge by saying to the youth, 'I made a terrible mistake,' " Muhammad said. "That's how he can pay back."

A viewing will be held Tuesday from 9-11 a.m. at the Price Funeral Home 615 N. 43rd streetcq. A Muslim funeral will be conducted Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Philadelphia Masjid (formerly known as Clara Muhammed School) at 4700 Wyalusing Avenuecq

Butler thanked the people who had attended the vigil, saying her daughter would have loved to see all the people who were there.

"She wasn't only taken from me," Butler said, "but every person that is here."