Youth arrested in teen's slaying

A South Boston youth was arrested on a murder warrant yesterday in connection with the death of a 16-year-old boy during a brawl nearly three weeks ago on a basketball court in the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development.

Authorities would not release details of the arrest and said the juvenile would be arraigned on the charges as an adult today in South Boston District Court.

Yesterday evening police were searching an apartment in the McCormack development. A resident of the development said that her 16-year-old son had been arrested, but that she did not know the nature of the charges. She was waiting outside the two-story apartment building with several other adults and said police had not allowed her to enter since she returned from work.

The victim, Bang Mai, lived in Medford. Authorities say he died after being beaten and stabbed in a brawl between groups of white and Asian youths that erupted in the McCormack project on July 11. The Community Disorders Unit has been investigating the slaying as a possible hate crime.

Mai's mother, Nhi Tran, said a friend heard about the arrest on television. She said she was called by police, who did not tell her details about who was charged in her son's killing. Afterward, she went to the makeshift memorial that was constructed for her son near where he was stabbed and beaten.

''The police told me they arrested one person," Tran said. ''I want to stop here and check it out. I just wanted to come visit my son, that's all."

Witnesses and others in the McCormack project said the July 11 brawl appeared to stem from a series of assaults. They said a female Asian teenager allegedly was assaulted by white youths a few weeks ago near Carson Beach, and subsequently a white girl allegedly was assaulted by Asian youths.

According to youth workers, the Asian youths, most of whom are Vietnamese, are from Dorchester, East Boston, and north of the city, while the white youths are believed to live in South Boston.

The day before the brawl, a larger fight occurred at Moakley Park, which sits between the McCormack project and Carson Beach, neighborhood teenagers said.

On July 11, a prearranged fight between two youths -- one Asian, the other white -- erupted into a melee that involved as many as 100 youths, authorities and witnesses said.

John Nguyen, 14, of East Boston, was injured in the brawl when he was struck in the leg with a baseball bat by Mark Brennick, 17, of South Boston, officials said. Brennick pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office, said last night that the ''murder warrant was obtained today in South Boston Court after tireless work by Boston detectives." The investigation is continuing, he added.

A gathering of family and friends will meet on Carson Beach in South Boston at 7:30 p.m. Sunday for a candlelight vigil for Mai, Tran said. ''I just hope the law will be fair for Bang," Tran said as she stood among the dried-out flowers, burned-out candles, and a note reading ''rest in peace" that was left for her son. ''I just hope God will help me and the police find who is responsible."