One stabbed fatally as two groups fight

A fight between two groups of teenagers left a 16-year-old boy fatally stabbed and two others injured early yesterday at the Bunker Hill housing development in Charlestown, police said. The teenager was the youngest person to be slain in the city this year.

Witnesses and police said that Kevin Walsh and several of his friends were fighting with another group of teenagers in front of his apartment complex near 50 Walford Way when Walsh was stabbed in the side. Police later found him wounded inside the apartment building.

Walsh was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:29 a.m. yesterday, said police Sergeant Thomas Sexton.

''It's so sad," said Timothy Donahue, 16, of Boston, who was close friends with Walsh. ''I want to cry, but I can't."

''I just can't believe it," said William Walsh Jr., 19, Kevin's older brother. ''Why would any of these people be carrying knives? They are so young, you know." Kevin Walsh was the third oldest of eight children.

Of 26 homicides this year in Boston, two involved 17-year-olds, two involved 18-year-olds, and two involved 19-year-olds, said Officer John Boyle.

The two other teenagers injured in the fight also lived in the housing development. Police declined to identify them. The youths were treated for minor stab wounds yesterday at MGH and released, according to neighbors. No arrests have been made in the case.

There are conflicting versions of how the fight began, and police would not comment on a motive, except to say they are probing the homicide.

Donahue said he and Walsh were walking back from a friend's house when several youths, who Donahue said are Hispanic, began calling them names in Spanish. After the other teenagers pulled out knives, a fight broke out, Donahue said.

Donahue and Walsh, who are white, tried to run into Walsh's house when three of the other teenagers grabbed Walsh and stabbed him in the side, Donahue said.

''His little brother was screaming, 'They stabbed Kevin; they stabbed Kevin,' " Donahue said yesterday afternoon. ''He wasn't even doing anything, and he got stabbed, just coming home."

A police officer briefed on the investigation, who asked not to be identified, told a different story. According to the officer, the Hispanic youths had had a fight with the white youths earlier in the night. The white youths later returned with a larger group of friends and attacked the Hispanic teens, who fought back.

Walsh's friends, who gathered in the teenager's home yesterday, said Walsh had not met the other stabbing victims before the fight.

Jacqueline Campos, 41, a resident of the housing development, said the two groups of teenagers had a longstanding feud and often argued near the corner where the fight took place yesterday.

Walsh's family and friends described him as a good boy who had a bright future. ''He was the good one, the one who was going to make something out of himself," William Walsh said.

Kevin Walsh had been arrested four times as a juvenile on charges of stealing a motor vehicle, property damage, and other offenses, William Walsh said. But he hadn't been in trouble in more than three years, he said.

Michael Fung, headmaster of Charlestown High School, where Walsh was a sophomore, described him as a respectful, friendly boy who might just have been involved with the wrong crowd.

''You never want to say anything bad about kids who died," he said yesterday in tears. ''But in this case, he really, really was a great kid."

Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff, contributed to this report.