'Thriving' Temple University senior shot dead in Philadelphia as city grapples with homicides

A senior at Temple University in Philadelphia was shot dead off campus on Sunday afternoon.

A "thriving" Temple University student months away from graduating has been gunned down near the school's Philadelphia campus.

Samuel Collington, a 21-year-old senior, was shot Sunday afternoon, the university said. Collington was set to graduate this spring.

Charlie Leone, the university's executive director of Public Safety, called him "a bright and thriving political science student" who "already was succeeding in his field, interning as a Democracy Fellow with the city."

"This is a true tragedy in every sense of the word," Leone said in a statement Sunday.