{"id":239434,"date":"2026-07-09T15:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/239434\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:52:10","slug":"loved-ones-mourn-teen-fatally-shot-in-reading-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/239434\/","title":{"rendered":"Loved ones mourn teen fatally shot in Reading \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Loved ones are mourning a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed on the Fourth of July in Reading, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

According to the Reading Police Department, on Saturday, July 4, at approximately 11:32 p.m., officers responded to the 1000 block of Windsor Street after receiving a report of a shooting. When police arrived, they found a 16-year-old boy, identified by his family as Felipe Rodriguez Jr., unresponsive and suffering from a gunshot wound to the back.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez Jr. was transported to a hospital, where he died.<\/p>\n

Preliminary investigation indicates that Rodriguez Jr. was at a family party when the suspect, identified as 16-year-old Daniel Cruz Jr., who was not attending the party, became involved in an incident stemming from an altercation between one of his family members and the party guests.<\/p>\n

According to the victim’s family, Cruz Jr. and one of his relatives confronted Rodriguez Jr.’s family over trash in an alley.<\/p>\n

Officials said after the altercation, the suspect retrieved a gun and discharged it, striking Rodriguez Jr.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez Jr.’s mother told NBC10 that her son was trying to de-escalate the situation when he was shot.<\/p>\n

“I want justice, I don’t want this to happen to another mother. I don’t want another household to be destroyed, because mine is already destroyed,” the mother told NBC10 in Spanish.<\/p>\n

According to a GoFundMe campaign, <\/a>Cruz Jr. had obtained his driver’s license just a day before he was killed.<\/p>\n

“Felipe loved to dance and bring a lot of smiles to his family and friends. He was known to do anything to cheer his loved ones up. He leaves behind his father, mother, 3 sisters, his little brother, and his first love,” his loved ones wrote.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

After the shooting, officers at the scene learned that the suspect had fled to a nearby home in the 800 block of North 10th Street, where he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

Cruz Jr. has been charged as an adult and is facing charges of criminal homicide and other offenses.<\/p>\n

“My thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family and everyone affected by this tragedy. I want to thank the officers of the Reading Police Department for their swift response and the investigative work that quickly led to an arrest. Every life lost to violence is one too many, and when that life is a young person, it impacts our entire community. We all have a responsibility to help guide our youth, resolve conflicts peacefully, and work together to create safer neighborhoods. The City will continue working alongside our community partners and law enforcement to confront this issue with urgency and build a safer future for our children,” Mayor Eddie Moran said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information related to the homicide investigation is asked to please contact the Reading Police Department at 610-655-6116. Information can also be provided anonymously by calling Crime Alert Berks County\u2019s anonymous tip line at 1(877) 373-9913. Crime Alert offers cash rewards for information that leads to an arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loved ones are mourning a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed on the Fourth of July in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,28,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-239434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}