Slain man received cash settlement

The Roxbury man whose body was found in his apartment on Friday afternoon had recently received a cash settlement from a car accident, stunned friends and a relative said yesterday.

"This is a total shock," said Katrina Rawles of Mattapan, who identified the victim as her uncle Richard W. Stroman, 64.

A longtime friend, James Clemons of Mattapan, said Stroman had planned to use the money to buy another Lincoln, to go with the two he already had.

While neighbors suggested Stroman may have been killed in a robbery, Boston police would not discuss a possible motive or identify the victim.

Police said they discovered the body of a man in his 60s on Friday afternoon, after neighbors reported a strange odor coming out of a first-floor apartment at 62 Elm Hill Ave., in the community's Grove Hall section.

Officer James Kenneally, a Boston police spokesman, said the man had been stabbed multiple times. Police are investigating the death.

Yesterday, several officers were seen going in and out of the well-tended red brick apartment building, while outside, neighbors said Stroman, a mechanic, had been killed inside his apartment.

Several of his acquaintances said they were shaken by the news.

"Wow, I can't believe Richie is gone," said Shamika Collins, who had lived near Stroman for about eight years.

"He was the nicest, nicest man . . . once he charged my car's battery overnight, and had it ready for me before I left for work the next day."

Others pointed to Stroman's two Lincoln Continentals, one white, the other gold. They said he was usually outside, tinkering with his cars.

When he wasn't working on his cars, Clemons said, he was sick: Stroman had undergone several heart operations in recent years.

While Stroman's friends reminisced, about 75 people gathered less than a mile away for a peace march.

Saying they were fed up with the spate of violence that has erupted in the city in recent years, they marched from Roxbury Common to the State House to urge state leaders to do more to make the city's neighborhoods safer.

"Deval Patrick and the rest of the people at the State House are so concerned about getting casinos," said rally organizer Joao DePina, "and they are not putting enough time into our communities.

"We are hurting," he said.

Nearby, Emma Harrison, 71, held a poster she had made to honor her grandson, Cerrone V. Hemingway, who was killed in Dorchester at age 15, in 1998.

"Something has got to change," said Harrison, a retired telephone company worker. "All our babies are getting killed.

"This isn't Baghdad," she said. "This is Boston."

John Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report. McConville can be reached at cmcconville@globe.com.