Veteran's slaying shocks family, friends

RANDOLPH -- James L. Jacobs served nearly a year as a US Army sergeant in Iraq, where he saw combat and witnessed children being blown up.

He came home in August 2004, moved in with his mother in Randolph, and started working as a mortgage consultant for a Mattapan lending firm. After nearly five years in the Army and far from battle, he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, but his family thought he was finally safe.

But last Friday night, he was shot and killed outside a friend's house on McLellan Street in Dorchester, less than a mile from Rosseter Street, where he grew up.

Moments before the shooting, a neighbor said she saw Jacobs outside by his Range Rover. His tires had just been slashed, his family said, and he was waiting for a tow service.

The neighbor told the Globe she saw three men approach Jacobs and an argument start. Moments later, she heard a dozen gunshots. Jacobs, 27, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center, the 15th homicide of the year.

Police have made no arrests and are investigating whether Jacobs's death is connected to the fatal shooting of Dwayne Graham, 18, hours earlier aboard an MBTA bus on Washington Street.

Yesterday, Jacobs's family was still grappling with the loss of a man who survived the dangers of Iraq but could not escape the violence of Boston's streets. His mother, Carolyn Jacobs, said her son confided in her and never said he had enemies. She said she had no idea why her son was shot.

Her son was so riddled with bullets that police refused to let her see his body, Jacobs said.

"They told me I wouldn't be able to handle it," she said in an interview at her home. "How can he survive through two years in Iraq and come back home and get slaughtered by someone."

Tall, quiet, and driven, Jacobs joined the Army soon after graduating from Marblehead High School and was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas.

In April 2003, he was sent to Iraq, where he maintained and operated munitions and missiles, relatives said.

When his tour ended in March 2004, the military awarded him two service medals, said Major Winfield Danielson, spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard.

"He was a patriot," said his boss, John Siegler, who hired Jacobs eight months ago to work at Richfield Loan Finders on Blue Hill Avenue. "He just felt so privileged to be serving his country for a worthy cause."

When Jacobs returned, he enrolled at Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he studied electronic engineering technology. He was about eight months away from a bachelor's degree, said spokesman Jamie Kelly.

"He is well respected by his professors and very well liked by his fellow students," Kelly said.

Jacobs began dating Tamu Jackson, a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and was thinking of delving into real estate investment.

But he remained haunted by the images of battle and sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Brockton, his mother said.

"He would see kids running through the streets in Iraq, playing around, and the next thing he'd see were body parts flying through the air," she said.

His mother spent most of yesterday preparing for her son's funeral, which will be held Saturday at Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester.

Near where he was slain on McLellan Street, stuffed animals, one dressed in Army fatigues, were tied to a pole. On the street were candles and a cross covered in blue flowers.

"It's a shock to everyone," Siegler said. "This is a great loss to anyone who knew him."

Michael Levenson and Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in yesterday's City & Region section about James L. Jacobs, a former Army sergeant shot to death in Dorchester, gave the wrong date for his funeral. It is scheduled for Tuesday at Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester.