Family thinks victim wasn't the target

She was a cheerful 18-year-old college student on the most ordinary of errands, walking home from a neighborhood convenience store with an afternoon snack.

But as Quinntessa Blackwell walked past an elementary school at the corner of her street, someone started shooting. Her longtime neighbor, Lloyd Wilcox , heard the shots at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, but by the time he reached the young woman's side, all he could do was call 911. She was lying in the street less than 50 yards from her front door on Dorchester's Rock Terrace, with a bullet lodged deep in her abdomen.

"Cedric," she kept saying, in what her family believes was a reference to the shooter. They might never know. By the time her father reached Boston Medical Center, where Blackwell underwent emergency surgery, it was too late even to say goodbye.

Now, the flashy dresser from the tight family has become another sad symbol of Boston's mounting street violence, the city's 10th slaying victim in a year just 10 weeks old.

Family members are convinced that her killer was aiming for a young man that she was walking with but who fled when the shooting started. They don't know the man, they said, but had heard that his cousin had been shot just around the corner on Wednesday night. Police declined yesterday to provide details on either shooting.

"Whoever she was walking with, the shots were meant for him," said Sharmaine Blackwell , Quinntessa's 21-year-old sister, as she stood outside the three-story house on a quiet dead-end street where the family has lived for 13 years. "My sister wasn't the target. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Boston police were aware of the painful symbolism of Blackwell's death in front of the Holland Elementary School, the site of a meeting with a youth group Friday night that was supposed to have had an upbeat message: mutual respect between police and teenagers.

The shooting came one day before police launched a new initiative that put foot patrol officers in the Bowdoin Street and Geneva Avenue neighborhood where Blackwell lived and died.

"People know who did this," said Deputy Superintendent Daniel Linskey, first assistant to Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis. "It's up to them to come forward."

Linskey said the homicide division is investigating the case, asking anyone with any knowledge to come forward and help provide justice for Blackwell and her family.

But Blackwell's family and neighbors are skeptical that the police can stop the violence that has made residents increasingly fearful to venture out, even in the daytime. Fourteen-year-old Jason Fernandes was shot dead on New Year's morning a few blocks away on Hamilton Street, but the crime remains unsolved in part because witnesses were reluctant to provide information, police said.

"They tried bikes, walking, street clothes," said Wilcox, 27, who has lived on Rock Terrace all of his life, of the police effort. "Nothing works."

He said witnesses of violent crimes are often too fearful of retaliation to talk to the police.

Yesterday morning, the little street of Rock Terrace was in mourning. At the spot where Quinntessa Blackwell fell, residents had created a makeshift memorial of candles, a single rose, and a T-shirt that read, "Much love baby. Miss U."

The third of Sedge and Gwendolyn Blackwell's six children, Quinntessa was known for her exuberant personality -- turning on loud music when she woke in the morning, making up dance moves on the street, wearing gold chains and sometimes a dapper pinstripe suit. The family called her "Tessie," but around the neighborhood she called herself "Goldie."

"We are very close knit," said her sister Ginnairiss , 25, late yesterday morning. "By now, Tessie would have called me and woke me up already."

Quinntessa Blackwell was taking courses at Roxbury Community College and living with her extended family, including her parents, five siblings, and five cousins. She also worked for Comcast selling cable television packages door to door.

"She didn't have too many enemies," said her father, his eyes welling up.

On Friday afternoon, Ginnairiss Blackwell said her sister left the house to buy a bag of chips and some juice. Along the way, she met up with an acquaintance. Ginnairiss Blackwell said she did not know the man herself, but said it was not unusual for her sister to strike up conversations on the street. "You know, you walk and you talk," she said. "I do it, too."

Wilcox said he heard the shots from his bedroom, which overlooks the scene. He looked out in time to see a man wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans, and white sneakers flee the scene. He believes the man was the shooter, though he said it could also have been Blackwell's companion.

Family members also said they did not know anyone named "Cedric." But Sharmaine Blackwell said the man walking with her sister might know him. She said neighbors have told her that the man has a cousin who suffered a gunshot wound to the leg on Wednesday night at the intersection of Geneva Avenue and Olney Street, less than 1,000 feet from where Quinntessa was shot.

Ginnairiss Blackwell said her family has a more fundamental concern as they prepared to bury Quinntessa. "We're still trying to figure out that our sister is gone," she said.

Boston police said anyone who witnessed the shooting or saw Blackwell prior to the killing should contact the homicide division at 617-343-4470.

Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com. Globe correspondent John Guilfoil contributed to this report.