Man dies in fight at MBTA station

A 23-year-old Boston man was killed yesterday during a violent struggle with another man at the Fields Corner MBTA station in Dorchester, which was teeming with dozens of afternoon commuters.

Law enforcement officials took one man into custody at the scene for questioning as they began to untangle the details of a brawl that apparently erupted on a Red Line train heading from Andrew station to Ashmont, before it spilled onto the Fields Corner platform.

No one had been charged last night. Authorities declined to identify the man who was being questioned.

The victim ended up on the third rail and might have been electrocuted. Authorities did not identify the victim last night.

A Boston police spokesman said that the two men started fighting at the Andrew station, got off at the Fields Corner stop at about 5:30 p.m., and then continued to brawl on the platform.

The two fought each other onto the train tracks, near the third rail, and then a single shot was fired, said two officials with knowledge of the investigation. Officer David Estrada, the police spokesman, said that the victim did not have any gunshot wounds and that no guns were seized at the scene.

The victim suffered serious facial burns from coming into contact with the third rail and was pronounced dead at the scene, the two officials said. The other man in the fight remained on the platform, and police took him into custody without a struggle, the officials and witnesses said.

''He seemed extremely calm," said Jenna Flaherty, 21, a witness.

She and Tommy Gillis, 27, both of Dorchester, said they had been heading toward the southbound platform on their way to Quincy when they saw the man, tall and shirtless and apparently with a wound on his shoulder, wave his hands as police officers raced to the platform.

''I'm right here, I'm right here," he told police, who promptly handcuffed him, Gillis and Flaherty said.

They said they overheard the man tell police officers that he had been arguing on the train with the victim, who was also shirtless when they saw him lying on the tracks.

''He just said they were arguing," Flaherty said.

MBTA police, Boston police, and the Suffolk district attorney's office were investigating the death last night. Officials said they had several witnesses to interview. If the death is ruled a homicide, it would be the city's 50th of the year.

Afterward, MBTA officials stopped both inbound and outbound trains south of the JFK-UMass station and put passengers on buses, said Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman.

The death shocked commuters and others in the area.

''You don't see stuff like this going on, on this street," said Bobby Fallen, who works at Mickey's Place, a Fields Corner pub.

William Benjamin, 14, who moved to Fields Corner with his family a few months ago, said he had decided to walk yesterday instead of taking the T as he usually does with his sister. He was shaken by the death, he said.

''It makes me feel like it's a little dangerous around here," he said.

Ralph Ranalli and Mac Daniel of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Chase J. Davis contributed to this report. Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.