Grieving family angry about violence in Hub

Relatives and community leaders called it a cold-blooded killing. It was 3 a.m. yesterday when Tyrice Brown, 19, a senior at Monument High School in South Boston, was shot during a confrontation inside a 24seven convenience store in Roxbury, authorities said.

The gunman fled, police said. Brown, who was identified by relatives, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center. Police did not release his name yesterday, but said the shooting was not random.

By yesterday afternoon, Brown's family had left their home in the city and piled in their cars to take on the grim task of alerting relatives that the young man was dead.

Their anger was palpable.

"This violence needs to stop; nobody wins in these situations," said one relative who asked not to be indentified for fear of retaliation.

"We are grieving," the woman said in a telephone interview. "Whoever killed him, this man shot him down in cold blood like he was an animal. This man, whoever he is, he must have family who loves him who would never want to go through what we are going through now."

The relative characterized Brown as a sweet young man who lived with his aunt and was trying to make a life for himself despite some past troubles.

"He was a young kid trying to live," she said. "He had been through a lot, but he didn't give up. He didn't want to give up on his education. He was ready to graduate. Tyrice was basically a happy kid. He was sad in some ways, but he tried to look at the best of things."

Brown's slaying, Boston's fifth homicide so far this year, occurred a day after police found the the body of 25-year-old Damien Lackland at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan. Lackland's family declined to comment last night.

Police have not made arrests in either case. There were four homicides reported in Boston at this time last year.

The slayings have once again unsettled community leaders and residents of Grove Hall who have worked tirelessly in recent years to quell the violence in their neighborhood, which has long been plagued with gang activity and drugs.

The area where Brown was found is a bustling commercial hub at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Warren Streets where stores featuring pizza slices, Caribbean foods, barber shops, and hair salons dot the intersection.

Stores that are open for 24 hours are magnets for large groups of teenagers and young adults to congregate after hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, said community leader Michael Kozu of Project RIGHT, a neighborhood organization.

"One thing we do have to look at is the time at when this happened and the location," he said. "We have a history of rolling back the hours of establishments if they have a problem maintaining public safety."

Kozu said he was also disturbed that so many are being killed so soon in the year.

"We thought we were making some headway on this very persistent problem," he said. "We do have to challenge our young men to step away from this violence and look for alternate ways to settle their disputes."

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com.