Family pleas for help after teen shot, killed in Willingboro

WILLINGBORO, N.J. (WPVI) -- A South Jersey family is pleading for help after their loved one was gunned down just feet from his own home.

Ibn Perry, 16, was shot and killed on his front porch in Willingboro on Monday.

Now, his family is asking for anyone with information about a social media dispute he may been involved in to come forward.

"It's just hard that it's a senseless killing for nothing, you know? He lost his life right here for what?" said Perry's aunt, Nikki Henigan.

Standing on the porch where her nephew was gunned down, a bullet hole in the door behind her, Nikki Henigan talked about new nephew.

Perry was shot Monday night in front of his Plumtree Lane home. Another teen was wounded when, police say, when someone across the street open fire.

"It's just senseless. It's just so senseless right now. My sister and his father will never be the same," Henigan said.

One of five children, Ibn Perry was a junior at Willingboro High School. Family members say Perry was a popular honors student who loved sports and stayed out of trouble.

Friends gathered Tuesday night at vigil to remember him. It was there, his aunt says, they were told by teens the shooting may have been connected to a disagreement on social media.

"All we're hearing is it was over Facebook and Snapchat arguments. You know, going back and forth with different kids," said Henigan.

"This stuff has to stop. This has to stop, and we are going to work with our community stakeholders trying to find a way again to prevent this from happening," said Public Safety Director Gregory Rucker.

Henigan says Perry was a Muslim and members of his father's mosque in Newark were coming Wednesday to wash and prepare his body for burial.

She says his parents are struggling with their grief.

"There's no way to make sense of it, really no sense of it, because you're shooting at 16 year old kids. If they are grown men, if they're even their age, why are you having access to a gun that you can be judge and jury to take somebody's life away?" said Henigan.

The prosecutor's office is not commenting on the possible social media angle of this case.