Detective spends a day in teen's shoes
Detective Larry Ellison strode into Madison Park High School in Roxbury, not to investigate a shooting or pat down a teenager for a gun, but to see for one day what it is like to be a high school student in Boston.
First he had to overcome the suspicion that teenagers often feel when they see a Boston police officer. That became clear Tuesday morning almost immediately after his student escort, Fabian Belgrave, introduced the West Roxbury detective to his friends.
Ellison shook their hands and told them he was there to try to break down the barriers between police and young people. But some students looked at Ellison warily. Others questioned Belgrave's decision to spend the day with a police officer.
" 'Don't sit next to me, you snitch,' " Ellison recalled a female student telling Belgrave during a school assembly in the morning. Others asked Belgrave, a popular, broad-shouldered senior who hopes to become a policeman someday, if he were wearing a hidden microphone.
Both the officer and the student laughed off the remarks, but the deeper meaning was not lost on Ellison: Boston police are often viewed as the enemy among the young people they need the most to quell gun violence in the city.
"As the policeman, I was like the boogeyman," Ellison, 43, said a couple of hours later in the cafeteria of the high school, where students wolfed down pizza and canned peaches and used their cellphones when school administrators were not looking.
The visit was part of an effort by police to gain more trust from teenagers in the city. Ellison and his captain, James Hasson, decided he should spend two days with a teenager to help him understand what young people think about crime.
It was also a chance for two people to peek at each other's starkly different worlds. Ellison, a 23-year veteran who once worked undercover for the drug unit and now investigates robberies and assaults in West Roxbury, got an unvarnished view of an urban high school student's life. Belgrave, a bright student with neat braids, a soft voice, and an easy laugh, saw firsthand what it is like to be a police officer when he got to ride along with Ellison during an evening patrol last week.
Belgrave first met Ellison while the detective was doing a security detail at
"I had talked to six cops, and he was the only one who offered to take me out," Belgrave said.
Ellison recalled being impressed with Belgrave, who started working two jobs about a year ago, after his mother suffered a stroke and had to quit her job.
During the school visit last Tuesday, Ellison asked Belgrave about teenage tastes, why they like baggy pants and the rapper 50 Cent, and about more serious issues, such as why they refuse to cooperate with police.
Soon after meeting Ellison, David Hosty, an 18-year-old senior, told the detective that a group of men had confronted him at gunpoint and tried to take his cellphone, designer sweater, and sneakers as he walked down Columbia Road in Dorchester last week. The men fled when a patrol car drove by on nearby Washington Street, but Hosty did not flag down the officers or file a report.
"I walk down that street every day, and if I see those people again and they knew I said something . . . " Hosty said, his voice trailing off. "I know I shouldn't let it ride."
Ellison said he was stunned that Hosty would not speak out.
"You'd think it would be the opposite," he said later. "If you live in that neighborhood, you think you'd want to say something, so that it doesn't happen again."
Belgrave said he understood Hosty's unease. He felt the same way about approaching police before his ride-along with Ellison Oct. 4.
But as they drove through the city in an unmarked car, Belgrave's opinion slowly changed.
Minutes into the drive, a call came over the radio for shots fired on Harvard Street in Dorchester. Ellison turned on his siren and sped down Blue Hill Avenue to the scene.
"Finally, some action," Belgrave said, smiling and slapping his hands together. At Harvard Street, police arrested three men and recovered a gun. But minutes later, fewer than two blocks away, someone in a car fired at a young man on a bicycle. Both the victim and the shooter fled. When officers tried to question witnesses, few would speak. Some screamed and cursed at officers for blocking off their streets.
Belgrave was astonished when several teenagers walked by, saw Ellison's badge, and murmured, "Don't say nothing."
"That's messed up," Belgrave said later. "They could have told Larry some information that could have led to it."
Less than two hours later, Belgrave and Ellison were on Evans Street in Dorchester, where 13-year-old Steven Odom was killed by a gunman who police say mistook him for someone else. The scene was harrowing. The victim's mother cried in disbelief, his sister wept, and other relatives held each other.
Belgrave said little on the drive back to the station. "What a night," he said softly. "Wow."
Last Tuesday, with Ellison at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, Belgrave told the other students what he had seen. Many did not believe it until Ellison confirmed the account.
After a few hours at the school, the detective won over Belgrave's cooking class with a lemon cake he had baked the night before.
"This is mad sweet," murmured Naomi Hatfield, a 16-year-old junior, as she bit into the cake.
By the end of the day, two students had taken Ellison's business cards. Most of the lemon cake was gone. And Ellison said he was going to return to the station and encourage other officers to invite a teenager to join them on patrol.
Belgrave said he believed other students would participate. Even the friends who had chided him for spending time with a police officer softened their attitudes when they learned he was only riding along with the detective, not helping him solve crimes.
"I told them we were driving around, checking out shootings," he said. "They were like, 'Oh, that's cool.' "
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. 