Suspect charged in 2023 shooting of Philadelphia teen killed while walking to school
PHILADELPHIA - Nearly two years after 15-year-old Devin Weedon was gunned down while walking to school, investigators in Philadelphia announced their first arrest.
Tamir Cole, 20, was charged Wednesday in the March 2023 robbery-turned-murder of Weedon, who was a Sophomore at Simon Gratz High School.
Cole was allegedly among a group of suspects who investigators say approached Weedon from behind near 16th Street and Hunting Park Avenue.
Tamir Cole, 20, was charged Wednesday in the March 2023 robbery-turned-murder of Devin Weedon, 15, who was a Sophomore at Simon Gratz High School. | Philadelphia Police Department
Police say the group intended to rob Weedon, but the teen was fatally shot when he fought back against an armed suspect.
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It has been nine months since 15-year-old honor student Devin Weedon was killed in a robbery on his way to school. The four suspects were caught on camera fleeing the scene. They have still not been identified or arrested.
Cole, according to police, was a participant in the robbery-turned-shooting. He has been charged with murder and conspiracy, and could face other charges.
Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said Cole was linked to the deadly shooting by evidence from another robbery that happened the previous night. Cole was arrested in April 2023 in connection to the robbery and has since been convicted.
"We are moving closer to identifying and getting enough probable cause for other individuals that participated in this case," Vanore said.
Devin's father, Gary Weedon, attended the Wednesday press conference to talk about his slain son and describe what the arrest means to his still-grieving family.
"It's hard when you've got a son who makes you so proud as a Dad, and one minute you hug him and say you love him and the next minute you get a phone call saying he's shot," Gary said. "I miss my son a lot, but I've got a little piece of justice."
Commissioner Kevin Bethel was the Chief of School Safey for the School District of Philadelphia back March 28, 2023, when Weedon was killed.
"I was standing there trying to figure out, here's a kid on his way to school, and he’s been taken away from us so senselessly," he says.
Police say Northwest Detectives were investigating a series of robberies at the same time of the murder in the same area of Broad and Hunting Park. They say Cole was later charged and convicted for a robbery the night before Weedon’s murder. Using evidence from that crime, police say they also linked him to the murder, though he was not the shooter.
They are still investigating the robberies, in addition to identifying and arresting the three other men involved in Weedon’s death.
"We're coming for them. So if they want to surrender and tell us what they did, we'd be glad to talk to them," says Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. "But, we're going to continue this until we get everybody into custody."
The unimaginable heartbreak for Weedon’s mom, Wytina Burnside, is still raw. For his sister, it’s a glimmer of hope, but not enough.
"It’s like reopening a wound that never heals. That’s all we want, justice, justice, justice, because you didn’t have to kill him, you didn’t have to shoot him, you didn’t have to touch him he was walking minding his business," says Jasmine Burnside. "I want them caught, they have to do life, it’s life for life, took my brother’s life from him walking to school, now it’s your life in jail."