Robbery apparently was not the motive. Coleman's pockets were stuffed with cash - more than $500 - when investigators arrived.
Less than 18 hours later, another Camden youth was killed a mile away as he and a child passenger rode a motor scooter through the city's Morgan Village section.
Saad Brittingham, 17, was riding west on Morgan Avenue about 2:30 p.m. when a gunman stepped out and unleashed several shots. Brittingham was struck twice in the chest. An 8-year-old boy riding on the back of the scooter narrowly escaped injury, neighbors said. The gunman then ran up an alley.
The two killings marked the city's 18th and 19th homicides of the year, compared with 13 at this point last year.
Last night, South Camden was seething with despair as neighbors tried to make sense of the killings.
"Where . . . is God!" yelled one teen, sobbing near 10th and Morgan.
"R.I.P. Pee-Wee" was scrawled in fresh black spray paint on a wall less than a block from where the 12-year-old was killed. On another corner, in oversized letters, was older graffiti that hinted Coleman may have aspired to be a drug-slinging gangster.
"GUN BOYZ. Pee-Wee-10th Street," it reads in weathered script.
Coleman had his first encounter with police about a month ago, when he was still 11 years old, authorities said. Investigators suspected him and two other young boys of drug dealing in the housing project. They spoke with Coleman, but the boy was not arrested.
Late on Independence Day, Annie Griffin, 35, said she was watching fireworks on television when she heard a series of loud pops in front of her Branch Village apartment.
Griffin scurried out front to chase away the noisemakers. The pops were not fireworks - they were gunshots.
Elisa Foster, 41, was also drawn by the noise. As she emerged from her home, she spotted the boy slouched in the back seat of the Oldsmobile.
