No arrests in slaying of 13-year-old

Friends of 13-year-old Luis Gerena, the latest victim of Boston's street violence, sobbed yesterday as they stood near the apartment on Wensley Street in Roxbury, where the boy lived with his grandmother. Vanessa Alvarez, 13, started to say how much she would miss him when she broke down in tears, unable to continue.

On Friday night, Gerena was shot several times inside the Bromley-Heath public housing development in Jamaica Plain, which is near his home. He became the third middle school student in as many weeks to die in a shooting; he was the second one from the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Charlestown.

Gerena was a schoolmate of Emmanuel Saintil, a 14-year-old boy who was shot to death three days before Christmas while walking home from a friend's house in Roslindale.

Jason Fernandes, 14, the other victim, was shot on New Year's Day, after leaving a family party on Clarkson Street in Dorchester.

Police have not made any arrests in the homicides. The violence has sent waves of fear throughout the boys' neighborhoods and has left their schools grieving.

"We've got young mothers who will never see sons again, families torn apart, and schools devastated by the loss of students to violence," said the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, cofounder of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, an anti violence group. "We can no longer be indifferent to a culture that supports the murder of 14-year-olds. We cannot as a city sit by and say, 'What a shame' and then go by with our daily tasks. We've had three young men barely in their teens who have had their lives taken away from them by individuals who think their culture supports this."

Linda Ramos, a resident of Bromley-Heath, said, "I'm scared," as she walked from her van to her apartment, which overlooks the area where Gerena was fatally shot "For such a young person to be killed, it's very sad."

Ramos said she was eating dinner when she heard three shots. Police knocked on her door later that night, but Ramos told them she did not see the shooting.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis said, "This is the third incident in three weeks involving the shooting death of a young teen. The prevalence of firearms combined with the unabated willingness to use them is a troubling cultural trend that poses a threat to the fabric of our community."

"As a parent and as a member of law enforcement," Davis said, "this tragic act is a clear indicator that together we must work closely with parents and community members to bring an end to senseless violence."

Gerena was shot on Horan Way. He fled to the nearby Jackson Square MBTA Station, where he collapsed. He was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Elva Alvarez, a close friend of the family who lives next door, said she feared for the safety of Vanessa Alvarez, her granddaughter.

Vanessa and Luis grew up together in the neighborhood of three-deckers and overgrown lots, just a block from the housing project.

As they got older, Alvarez said the two teens spoke on the phone nearly every day.

"I'm scared for her," Alvarez said of her granddaughter as tears rolled down her cheeks. "She walks to school sometimes over there."

Alvarez stood on the front porch, her head covered with a fur-lined hood. She said she had been crying since her mother learned of Gerena's death on the news.

"We was friends since we were little," she said, before burying her face in her hands and returning to her grandmother's apartment.

Jason Fernandes looked much younger than his 14 years. He grew up in Dorchester but moved to Brockton with his sister, who was his guardian, seven years ago.

Relatives said he preferred to spend time in his room, playing video games or watching television, rather than going to parties, as many of his friends did.

Fernandes was an eighth-grader at the B. B. Russell School in Brockton. His parents live in Cape Verde but traveled to the United States to attend his funeral, which was held on Thursday.

Family members say the predawn attack, in which Fernandes' s cousin was also shot, was random, but police believe one or both of the victims had been targeted.

Emmanuel Saintil, described by relatives as a lanky boy who often flashed a wide smile and loved to dance, was shot execution-style by a hooded gunman in Roslindale three days before Christmas.

Saintil, whom family and friends called Benjy, was in the eighth-grade and had just made the honor roll at Edwards Middle School.

He was a member of the school's step squad, relatives said.