Thursday, 4:30 PM
Police investigate second murder in two days
By Megan Tench, GLOBE STAFF
Relatives and community leaders called it a cold-blooded killing.
It was 3 a.m. today when Tyrice Brown, 19, a senior at Monument High School in South Boston, was shot during a confrontation with someone inside a 24/7 convenience store in Roxbury, authorities said.
The gunman fled, police said. Brown, who was identified by relatives, was was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center. Police did not release his name today, but said the shooting was not random.
By this afternoon, Brown’s family had left their home in the city and piled in their cars to take on the grim task of alerting relatives the young man was dead.
Their anger was palpable.
"This violence needs to stop; nobody wins in these situations," said one relative who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
"We are grieving," the woman said in a telephone interview. "Whoever killed him, this man shot him down in cold blood like he was an animal. This man, whoever he is, he must have family who loves him who would never want to go through what we are going through now."
The relative characterized Brown as a sweet young man who lived with his aunt and was trying to make a life for himself despite some past troubles.
"He was a young kid trying to live," she said. "He had been through a lot, but he didn’t give up. He didn’t want to give up on his education. He was ready to graduate. Tyrice was basically a happy kid. He was sad in some ways, but he tried to look at the best of things. He wanted a good life."
Brown’s slaying, Boston’s fifth homicide so far this year, occurred a day after police found the body of 25-year-old Damien Lackland at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan.
Police have not made arrests in either case. There were four homicides reported in Boston at this time last year.
