In the early moments of a summer Tuesday, the life of 14-year-old Tyree Bates was tragically cut short on a Philadelphia street. A Black male, Tyree was with a group of friends on the 2100 block of North 4th Street just after midnight on July 17, 2018, when gunfire erupted. He was struck in the head and rushed to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, where he died that morning.
The shooting also wounded four other young people, including an 11-year-old boy.
At the time, police believed the shooting was the result of a neighborhood dispute, though it was not thought to have directly involved Tyree. Friends and family remembered him as a good kid with a contagious smile who loved basketball and dreamed of playing professionally. He was looking forward to his 15th birthday and starting his sophomore year of high school. In the wake of the shooting, a $20,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for his death.
Despite the reward and pleas from his family for justice, no arrests have ever been made in the murder of Tyree Bates. His case remains unsolved. The pain of his loss was compounded by a tragic postscript; five years later, in August 2023, Tyree's older brother, Tyyon Bates, was involved in a retaliatory shooting. Prosecutors stated that this subsequent act, which resulted in the deaths of three people, was motivated by a desire for 'get-back' for Tyree's unsolved murder. While Tyyon Bates and two others were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 2023 shooting, the individuals responsible for the death of Tyree Bates have never been brought to justice.
