The two were shot at close range about 2:20 a.m. on the 6900 block on Vandike Street in Tacony as they returned from a 7-Eleven around the corner, police said. They were gunned down a block away from the Clark home, where Holloway also had been staying.
Costello said that robbery did not appear to be the motive and that a videotape of the pair at the 7-Eleven showed nothing out of the ordinary as they purchased soda and snacks and left.
Detectives were still seeking a possible motive yesterday.
Medics pronounced Clark dead at the scene. Holloway was in critical condition at Frankford Torresdale Hospital.
Relatives speculated that Clark was killed only because he was a witness to the shooting of Holloway.
Neighborhood residents, who erected shrines at the crime scene and in front of the Clark house, spoke highly of both Clark and Holloway.
They said that Holloway mowed lawns and shoveled walks in the neighborhood and that he paid Clark and other youngsters to help him.
No one could imagine why anyone would hurt the boy, who was to enter the 10th grade at Lincoln High School.
Elizabeth Stier, a block captain from nearby Knorr Street, said that whenever she would put up a poster for a cleanup "he'd be the first kid out there helping out."
She said the sound of gunfire is not unusual in the neighborhood, but the shooting of a teenager was rare.
"Something's got to be done in this city, in every neighborhood," Stier said.
Billy Kinee, 15, said his best friend loved sports - particularly football. As a poster outside Clark's home made clear, he was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. He was wearing a Phillies cap when he was shot.
"If we'd ever hit a car with a football, he'd be the first one to go over to apologize," Kinee said.
The victim's aunt, Phyllis McBride, said, "That was his routine - a soda every night.
