Longtime Dorchester resident, 39, is slain
Peace is shattered by fatal shooting
Police were looking last night for a known suspect in the fatal shooting of a Dorchester man yesterday behind a three-story house on Nottingham Street, in a crime that shocked neighbors who said the area had been peaceful recently.
"Boston police know who they are looking for . . . and are making every effort to locate and apprehend him," said Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Police Department. The suspect's name was not released.
Police also did not release the name of the 39-year-old victim, but his sister identified him as Joseph "Jo Jo" McAfee Smith, who grew up in the area and lived on nearby Rosseter Street.
"I can't believe this," said Elwanda Chislom, as she walked away from Nottingham Street, where dozens of officers had been scouring the neighborhood for hours for the suspect. "In his heart, he was a good man. He cared."
The shooting occurred about 1:40 p.m. behind 27 Nottingham St., in a neighborhood where children said they feel safe playing football and riding bikes.
Police said they believe the assailant ran across the street after the shooting and into a house at 28 Nottingham St. For hours, officers closed off the street and a section of Bullard Street, which runs perpendicular to Nottingham.
Several officers in riot gear stood in front of 28 Nottingham and in the yard, cocking guns at the light brown house, before storming inside.
They did not find the suspect, which angered residents who had been kept outside the house. They said they returned to find their rooms ransacked and their beds overturned.
"Everything is trashed," said Teanna Williams, 20, who lives on the second floor, after police cleared her house about 8 p.m.
Williams, who said she did not know who police were searching for, said she last saw the victim on Wednesday night. "I was out talking to him," she said. "He was talking about some girl he used to go out with."
McAfee Smith knew almost everyone around Nottingham Street, which is only a few blocks long, said Chislom, who said her brother had been arrested in the past, though she did not know why. She said she did not know if he had fought with anyone in the neighborhood recently.
"I'm so confused," she said. "He wasn't a bad person. He could just run his mouth off, sometimes."
It was the 30th homicide of the year. There were 32 slayings at this time last year.
Police were also investigating another shooting yesterday six hours later on Shirley Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Roxbury. A man in his early 20s was shot in the leg and taken to Boston Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, authorities said.
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. 