Two slain in daylight shootings on city streets
Police hold pair in Roxbury attack
Two young men were fatally shot yesterday, one in Dorchester and the other in Roxbury, in a late-afternoon spasm of violence on Boston's streets, police said.
A law enforcement official said last night that the two shootings were not related. The deaths raised the city's homicide count this year to 22, one more than at the same time last year.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the victim in the Roxbury shooting as Jerome Wells, in his early 20s. The official said Wells was standing with his pregnant girlfriend and her mother when he was shot.
Two men in a white vehicle were arrested several blocks from the shooting, police said. Antonio Llamas, 19, of Malden, was charged with murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. Nathaniel Greene, 22, of Roxbury, faces a charge of being an accessory after the fact. Both are scheduled to be arraigned today in Roxbury District Court.
In Dorchester, the man who was killed was also in his early 20s, police and witnesses said. A woman, whom police also declined to identify, was hit in the leg by a stray bullet and was treated for injuries not considered to be life-threatening.
All three victims were taken to Boston Medical Center. Police would not comment on a motive for either shooting.
The first shooting, involving one man and the 27-year-old woman, occurred about 5:15 p.m. on Ames Street in the Franklin Field public housing development in Dorchester. Witnesses said they heard about six or seven gunshots and saw a man in the street bleeding from a head wound.
"I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight," said a woman who declined to give her name for fear of retaliation. "I can't get his face out of my head."
She said she was sitting in her living room on Ames Street with her children watching television when they heard the shots and called 911. The woman said she had seen the man in the neighborhood before, but did not know his name. She said soon after the shooting the man's sister ran to the scene.
Police declined to say whether any suspects have been identified.
The shooting in which Wells was killed occurred about 30 minutes later, near Warren and Holborn streets in Roxbury, adjacent to Boston Latin Academy.
Wells had played quarterback and was captain of the football team at Madison Park Technical Vocational High in Roxbury, said Roosevelt Robinson, the team's longtime coach. Wells was an all-city player in 2001, but left school in 2002, during his senior year, Robinson said.
"He was a young man, very nice, who ran into the problems that the city brings," said Robinson, who said he had known Wells since coaching him on the Boston Raiders Pop Warner team in 1996. "He went through the regular growing pains as a young man. He was a very competitive young man, which is why the streets presented a problem. It's just very sad."
Neighbors where Wells lived on Woodbine Street described him as an easy going guy.
"We would play out on the street. He would teach me" about football, said Jordan, a 14-year-old neighbor of Wells, who did not want to provide his last name.
Police Superintendent Robert Dunford said an on-duty officer had witnessed the shooting .
"He put out a description of a car, and as a result we have two people we're questioning," Dunford said.
A white Kia parked on nearby Quincy Street was surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape and police detectives last evening.
The law enforcement official said investigators had recovered what they believe to be the murder weapon.
"I was watching television and had my window open when I heard six shots," said a 40-year resident of Holborn Street who also did not want to give her name for fear of retaliation. "They were very loud. Then I heard people screaming. It's usually a very quiet street. I don't get it. But maybe I shouldn't speak too soon."
The homicide count last year, 74, was just one shy of the total for 2005, the highest in a decade.
Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Khristopher M. Flack contributed to this report. 