SUNBURY - Friends of Naheem Reams said the teen was hiding from juvenile probation officers for a few days, was scared and didn't deserve to be shot early Wednesday morning by a police officer.
A woman at 452 N. Fifth St., who asked that her name not be used, said Reams, 17, often visited her four children and was best friends with her son.
He was on probation for a failed drug test and may have been headed to boot camp, but he was never violent, she said.
"He's not a bad kid. He panicked. He was scared, I think," the woman said.
Her son, who identified himself as Jason Schaeffer but didn't provide his age, said Reams didn't want to be taken away from the area because he wanted to be present for his son's birth in four months.
The family lives near the intersection with Brennan's Farm Road, a short street that connects Fifth and Sixth streets. It was on Fifth Street near Brennan's Farm Road where police say they approached Reams' vehicle at 1 a.m. Wednesday while they attempted to clear streets for the street sweeper. He took off in a "reckless manner," a police report said, starting a chase that ended about one mile away with Reams being shot by a city police officer.
A sign along Fifth Street says no parking from 1 to 7 a.m. Wednesdays, apparently for the sweeper.
Expecting his visit
Teens gathered at 452 N. Fifth St. Wednesday afternoon said they were expecting Reams to visit Tuesday night, but he never showed up. Daughters at the house said they were waiting for him on the porch, but eventually went back inside.
They don't know why Reams was parked on the street at the time police approached, but noted he knows other people in the neighborhood.
Schaeffer said Reams was enrolled through Shikellamy School District in the CLANCY program, the juvenile court system's last effort to reform young offenders before sentencing them to juvenile detention centers or forestry camps. He reportedly earned his high school diploma through the program.
Reams may have last been living in the Shamokin area with his father, but the Sunbury family was not sure the last place he resided.
They were unable to provide a full name for his mother, who they believe is in Northumberland County Prison.
Why not TASER?
The Fifth Street woman said she had been hearing conflicting reports about the incident from news sources and online posts and many questions remained.
"If they were had enough time to shoot him, couldn't they use a TASER? Couldn't they shoot his tires?" she asked.
Schaeffer agreed, saying he believes police didn't apply enough non-violent methods.
"There's lots of things they could have done. He's 100 pounds soaking wet. There's no reason to shoot kids," he said.
The Fifth Street woman, who is white, questioned whether race played any part in the police officers' reaction to Reams, who is black or Hispanic.
"If he was white, would they have shot him? Was there racial motivation?" she asked.
She said it wouldn't surprise her because her biracial daughter has been subjected to racial slurs before in Sunbury.
Reams has a rough life, Schaeffer's mother said.
"Whether he was in the wrong or the right, this is just a really bad situation," she said.