Wave of shootings shatters city
killed, 2 wounded since Saturday night
Brandon Patterson's family and friends stood in the drizzle on Blue Hill Avenue yesterday afternoon writing messages on a makeshift pink posterboard shrine honoring the slain 17-year-old, one victim in the most recent wave of violence that has bewildered city officials, community leaders, and families.
Patterson, who relatives said attended East Boston High School, was shot to death in front of P&R Ice Cream, a popular Jamaican restaurant in Mattapan, about 7:40 p.m. Monday. He is one of five people to be shot in the city since late Saturday night.
Three of the five victims have died, bringing Boston's homicide count to 62, three more than the same time last year. Last night, police were seeking suspects in all three deaths.
A man found dead at Dorchester Avenue and Tilman Street shortly before midnight Monday has not been identified. Police said his body was riddled with bullets. Last night, police identified Victor Rose, 25, of Hyde Park as the man killed in a drive-by shooting on St. James Street in Roxbury shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Sunday.
The 279 shootings in the city this year through Oct. 23, fatal and nonfatal, represent a 28 percent increase over the same period last year, according to police statistics. Half of the 632 people arrested or sought in Boston on illegal gun possession and gun assault charges through Oct. 31 were 21 or younger. Seventy-five were 17 or younger.
Calvin White, 19, said yesterday he was stunned that Patterson, whom he considers a brother, would be the target of gunfire. ''He was a good little kid," White said of the boy he called ''Lil Skeet" because he could run fast. ''He wasn't one of those kids be doing things in the street."
Patterson's cousin, who arrived at the scene yesterday with black markers, a posterboard, and candles, said she was shocked by Patterson's violent death on a busy street corner at the height of the dinner rush hour. ''I'm very angry and very disturbed," she said, declining to give her name. ''He was definitely an awesome kid."
Patrick Sanon, 20, was shot in the head just before 11 p.m. Saturday while walking on Sydney Street near the entrance to the JFK/UMass MBTA station on the Red Line, according to Sanon's brother, Eroll, and a law enforcement official with knowledge of the shooting.
Patrick Sanon had been stopped by two Boston police officers a couple of hours before he was shot. The officers arrested Sanon's friends and seized a stolen gun from the car, but Sanon escaped, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is against Police Department rules to speak to the media without permission.
Three-and-a-half hours later, Sanon was found lying in the street near the intersection of Sydney and Carson streets with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head.
A fifth man, as yet unidentified by police, was shot Monday afternoon on Blue Hill Avenue a few blocks from where Patterson was shot three hours later.
Last night, Larry Mayes, the city's chief of human services, pointed to the shootings as a reminder of the importance of legislation that includes $11 million for youth violence prevention, a measure that has been languishing in the House of Representatives since the Senate passed it last month.
Mayes said Mayor Thomas M. Menino called House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi yesterday to lobby for the bill, which would be delayed until the next legislative session, scheduled to start in January, if legislators do not vote on the bill before adjourning today.
''At least it shows parents and loved ones that we actually do care about their plight, that we do want to do whatever we can to make their neighborhoods safe," Mayes said. ''Teenagers should be able to walk down Blue Hill Avenue at 7:30 at night and not get shot. . . . To not take up this bill and pass it may suggest a level of complacency that is close to frightening."
Emmett Folgert, director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said last night that the $11 million would pay for summer jobs that keep at-risk youths off the streets. ''We may not be able to get programs off the ground for the summer, and that's shame on us," Folgert said.
Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com; Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. 