Neighbor describes Mattapan shooting

The grandmother was in her apartment in Mattapan late Sunday night when she heard four shots, then the sound of glass breaking. She rushed into her 3-year-old grandson's bedroom, terrified a bullet had gone through the window. When she saw he was OK, she ran outside, clutching her portable phone, and looked down Orlando Street to see if anyone had been hurt.

In the middle of the street lay a male teenager. Next to him stood a young woman, who screamed: "I need help! Call 911."

The man, whom a cousin identified as Charles Bunch Jr., 18, a senior at Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Outside his family home in Roxbury yesterday, relatives and friends streamed out, some hugging each other. His cousin declined to give her name, but said she and Bunch were like siblings.

"We all grew up together," she said.

She said that his mother was too upset to speak and that the family was planning the young man's funeral.

Bunch's death was the city's 55th homicide this year. At the same time last year, 58 people had been slain in Boston.

Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said investigators believe the shooting was gang-related and that the victim was known to police. She declined to elaborate. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said Bunch had been the victim of shootings in the past.

On Orlando Street yesterday, yellow police tape hung on a chain-link fence near the shooting.

The grandmother, a 43-year-old medical aide who asked that her name be withheld because she was a witness and feared retribution, described Bunch as a nice-looking young man who dressed well and often walked down Orlando Street, sometimes with a young woman. But he was usually alone and often looked over his shoulder.

"He always turned his head," she said. "He was always watching what was going on behind him."

The grandmother said she rarely spoke with him, except when he occasionally asked her for a cigarette.

Police and an ambulance immediately appeared at the scene, the grandmother recalled. As emergency workers surrounded him, she said, she told the teenager, "You're OK. You're not alone."

The grandmother said two of her sons spent the night with her to comfort her, but it did not help much. "I keep seeing his face," she said. "It's just so senseless."

The grandmother said she hopes to attend the young man's funeral. "I hope they find his killer," she said. "I really do. I pray for that."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.