Many people who knew Carl Farris knew him through their mutual faith.

Today, they're probably wondering if there's any hope at all.

	Carl Farris

Many people who knew Carl Farris knew him through their mutual faith.

Today, they're probably wondering if there's any hope at all.

Friday night, after attending the visitation services in Duquesne for an uncle who had died, the 18-year-old graduate of Oliver High School, who earned a full scholarship to college, made money mowing people's lawns and had begun mentoring a third-grader, was struck by a bullet and died an hour-and-a-half later at UPMC McKeesport.

Mr. Farris was standing outside a house on Aurilies Street in Duquesne when he suffered the gunshot wound to the torso.

Details of the shooting were unclear last night. Police did not respond to media inquiries about their investigation. But members of Mr. Farris' church believe he was an unintended victim.

Joyce Kish, a member of New Hope Evangelical Presbyterian Church on the North Side, became, like so many congregants, a fan and champion of the young man they first came to know as a little boy who was baptized with his brother, Deontae, who was one year younger.

Samantha "Chickie" Farris adopted and raised the boys at her home near the Woods Run branch of the Carnegie Library in the North Side's Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood.

"They grew up in our church," said the Rev. Roger Woodworth. "A lot of times, when something like this happens, people say, 'He was really a good kid,' " even of a teenager who's been in trouble with the law. But "Carl was the real deal."

Mr. Farris had always eschewed drugs, gangs and other destructive pursuits, said the Rev. Woodworth. "He was the first person to go through our Y.E.S. [Youth Experiencing Success] mentoring program and our first eligible for a scholarship from the church."

Mr. Farris had planned to attend Hilbert College in Hamburg, N.Y., starting Tuesday.

"This is one of those kids who ... ," Ms. Kish said, choking back tears. "Oh he had so much future. He was a success story. A message has to be sent: When's it going to stop?"

The credo of the New Hope Church is reconciliation and making good decisions, she said. Mr. Farris was practicing both. In the last few years, he and his brother had resumed a relationship with their birth mother.

"Carl and Tae would get on the bus to Duquesne and visit her," said the Rev. Woodworth. They were there for a visit around the time he died.

Mr. Farris was active in a church program to teach middle-school boys about civics and business. They ran a car wash and an ice cream stand. "Carl was teaching them that there's another way to live," off the path of lawlessness and violence, said the Rev. Woodworth. "That's the irony."

"Nearly everyone in the congregation had him under his wing," said Ms. Kish, a teacher in Shaler. "The whole neighborhood is just going to be so hurt by this."

John Ciccotelli said he was paired with Mr. Farris in the church's mentorship program three years ago "and he became very special to me. Around the church, he was probably the most known and loved kid."

"He and I would talk about ways of making a living. He thought about a sporting goods store, and he thought carpentry was cool."

Last year at Christmas, members of the church accompanied Mr. Farris to a youth detention center in Grove City, where he performed a rap song about Jesus Christ, said Mr. Ciccotelli. "The kids there were mesmerized. Coming home, he was so fired up. I said, 'Hey Carl, you had a gig.'

"He had a broad and deep support network, and he appreciated that he had so many people who loved him. In a million years, I never thought this would happen to a kid like Carl."