14-year-old boy shot while inside house in North Philly: police

Teen shot inside "rooming house" under investigation

An investigation is underway after police say a 14-year-old boy was shot in North Philadelphia Wednesday.

PHILADELPHIA - Philly police are investigating a shooting of a14-year-old inside a "rooming house" in North Philadelphia.

Police say family members are at Temple Hospital with the 14-year-old, who is extremely lucky to be in stable condition. 

What we know:

Police are investigating a shooting that happened inside a house on the 1500 block of West Lehigh Avenue. 

They say when they got there the teen was waiting outside on the front steps.

"He was bleeding heavily from his abdomen. Police picked him up and rushed him to Temple Hospital," said Chief Inspector Scott Small. He says the 911 call came in just after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

 "According to doctors at the hospital, it appears a bullet struck him in the back and exited the front of his abdomen," said Chief Inspector Small.

"We believe the shooting took place inside on the first floor in a rear room because that's where we found the beginning of a blood trail. There was a large amount of blood inside and that blood trail leads outside to the front steps," he said. Police believe this is or once was a rooming house. They say the inside is converted into individual living units but that it is "in disarray and disrepair."

They say the 14-year-old does not live there but was inside with about three or four other juveniles when he was shot, police believe accidentally. They say the victim's last known address is about two miles from the house.

"Several of the juveniles left the location however one of them stayed," said Chief Inspector Small.

The juvenile that stayed at the house with him is cooperating with police.

Senator Sharif Street stopped by the scene.

"There's a sense of concern and it reiterates or underscores the reason that we have too many firearms on the streets. Whether intentional or unintentional," he said.

Police say they were told the gun was still in the house. Late Wednesday evening, they were waiting on a search warrant to retrieve it. They are also looking into who owns the property.