Shot Strawberry Mansion grad goes home

A day after getting his high school diploma and a bullet in his back, Khiry Caldwell went home yesterday, grateful to still have a future.

"I'm very happy I made it," Caldwell, 18, said as he was wheeled out of Temple University Hospital, a bottle of grape juice and discharge papers in his hands and the bullet still lodged in his chest.

"I don't believe in luck. I'm just happy to be alive," added Caldwell, who plans to major in criminal justice at Shaw University, a historically black college in North Carolina.

Dressed in gray shorts and a blue shirt, he walked the short distance from his wheelchair to a white Cadillac SUV while one of his sisters clutched a teddy bear, gifts, and a balloon that read: "A loving get well prayer."

"Thank you for your prayers," his mother, Kathy, said as she climbed into the vehicle.

Earlier, she had said: "Whoever did that - shot into a crowd of men, women and children - deserves to go to jail."

"They have no regard for human life," affirmed Caldwell's father, Amin.

Apparently a bystander, Caldwell was shot Tuesday afternoon during a street fight near Temple University's Liacouras Center, where graduation ceremonies had just wrapped up for 117 students from Strawberry Mansion High School.

Five young men ages 17 to 19 were released yesterday after questioning, pending further investigation. The five, who still may face charges, did not identify the gunman, said Capt. Sharon Seaborough, commander of Central Detectives.

Those questioned came from both sides in the dispute, which involved as many as a dozen young men, police said.

The shooter likely was part of the fight, Seaborough said, but detectives were trying to confirm that.

A feud stemming from an assault on a girl at the North Philadelphia school a month ago apparently triggered the rumble and shooting, police said.

Investigators were examining surveillance video from Temple and nearby businesses in an effort to identify the gunman, who fired a .22-caliber pistol while on Cecil B. Moore Avenue just off Broad Street.

In light of the shooting, security was stepped up at graduation ceremonies around the city yesterday, using city and school police, crisis-management teams, school counselors, and community-based organizations. The Liacouras Center hosted another high school graduation an hour after the shooting and three more yesterday without incident.

At Strawberry Mansion High School, where underclassmen had a half-day session, a schoolyard get-together of new graduates was lightly attended.

Some wore white shirts with "Class of 2008" in red letters and the names of all the graduating seniors. A few played basketball as loudspeakers blared Chris Brown's "Gimme Whatcha Got."

"Strawberry Mansion is the best school," said graduate Chris Andrews, who called Caldwell "real cool."

"As long as he's OK, we're all cool," Andrews said.

Caldwell's parents said there were no plans to remove the slug from their son's chest. Nevertheless, he is expected to make a full recovery.

Dominic Fallins, a junior who said he recently had started an antiviolence mentoring program called Mission to Change, said the shooting "was uncalled for."

"The violence, it's killing our young people," Fallins said. "It makes you want to stay away from the area."