Promise prevented

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Friday, Southern High School head football coach Stosh Tunney and player Tyree Parks were horsing around in the locker room, just like two old buddies. The senior was excited because he had been accepted to Bloomsburg University, Tunney’s alma mater.

“I was really happy when he got accepted there. We had an excellent relationship. He was like one of my own kids. Five hours later, he was dead,” the coach said.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting on 32nd Street near Dickinson at about 8:10 p.m. found Parks facedown with a bullet to the head, Officer Tanya Little of the Police Public Affairs Unit said.

The teen from 33rd and Wharton streets in Grays Ferry had a .32-caliber gun in his waistband cops discovered when they rolled him over before a medic took him to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died at 8:27 p.m., Little added. Investigators don’t know if Parks fired the weapon at any point when he was shot, but cited an argument as the motive for the killing, Little said Tuesday. There were no suspects nor arrests at press time.

When contacted yesterday, Homicide Sgt. Frank Hayes told the Review he could not discuss the case nor release any personal information about Parks. Asked if Parks was an innocent victim, Hayes said that had not been determined yet and police were “actively investigating this case.”

Gun violence was a part of Parks’ young life, whether he wanted it to be or not. In 2002, his 18-year-old brother Dwayne was fatally shot once in the chest after leaving a Grays Ferry tavern. Police found the man laying in the intersection of 33rd and Reed streets in the early morning hours. Police said the motive was the escalation of an argument.

More recently, according to published reports, Tyree Parks’ MySpace page, where he reportedly lists the nickname “Warzone Boy,” had a photo of him along with another of the 30th-and-Wharton-streets sign and images of a silver handgun and a gold bullet.

None of the Southern coaches, including Tunney, said they could see Parks with a gun.

“I was totally shocked. He was not a thug, not a tough guy,” Tunney said.

Tunney and Southern assistant basketball coach Bill Williams said they had heard rumors, but couldn’t verify Parks had borrowed a gun to protect himself against a neighborhood teen who had threatened him earlier that day.

“He was scared, scared of the neighborhood. I was told there was an altercation at some point earlier in the day. Whatever happened to him spooked him so bad, he borrowed a gun off of somebody. These are rumors I hear,” Williams said.

When Parks was gunned down, he was walking home from a Henry Hill Post 385 basketball league game at 32nd and Wharton with his 9-year-old nephew and two other boys, Williams told the Review. Parks had been coaching the league for ages 10 to 12 since it started three years ago.

“He was a positive figure with these little kids, mentoring them … He was a very good kid. Every time you saw him he had a smile on his face,” Williams said.

It was Williams who called Southern head basketball coach George Anderson to tell him the sad news.

“At first, I wanted to believe it was a mistake and it was not him,” Anderson said, before continuing about the gun found on the teen, “I never saw anything that would lead me to believe he was involved in violence of any kind.”

Last year, Parks tried out for the basketball team, but didn’t make it. After that, he’d always go to practices and games, joking with the head coach about finding a spot for him on the team, Anderson recalled.

Though fond of hoops, Parks’ talent shone on the football field, playing offense, defense and special teams. This year, he made First Team All Public.

Parks also held his own in the classroom, maintaining a B average.

“He did well on SATs. He was good in all his classes. Not one teacher who had him had anything bad to say about him,” the football coach said.

For Williams, Parks’ death is another lesson in senseless violence.

“I just couldn’t believe his life was taken from him like that. It’s another good kid we’ve lost to violence. It’s a shame. It has to stop. We’re losing a lot of kids,” Williams said.

To report information, call the Homicide Division at 215-686-3334/5.

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