A group of teenagers was harassing a Mattapan man last spring, when one of the boys punched the man in the face, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement, police said yesterday.
About a week later, the man, 41-year-old Michael Hansbury, died of complications of a brain injury. Yesterday, a 15-year-old boy was arrested at William McKinley South End Academy on charges of manslaughter. He was arraigned in Dorchester District Court as a juvenile in the June 5 assault on Monson Street in Mattapan and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail.
Investigators were led to the boy through witnesses to the assault, said Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis, who credited Sergeant Detective Paul Donovan and Detectives Paul Donlon and Josh Cummings with tracking down the suspect.
"It was difficult to tie it down to any one particular person," Davis said. "It required a significant number of interviews and reinterviews."
The state medical examiner ruled Hansbury death's a homicide after an autopsy indicated his brain injury resulted from a beating to the head. Officials declined to describe a motive for the assault.
A Suffolk Superior Court grand jury has been meeting to investigate the case. Prosecutors expect an indictment against the youth by the time he is back in court for a probable cause hearing Nov. 28, said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.
The boy, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, was traumatized by yesterday's events, said his lawyer, Cecely Reardon.
"He is really just struggling to understand what's happening," she said.
Reardon said the juvenile court equivalent of a not-guilty plea was entered on the boy's behalf.
"This clearly is an extremely tragic situation," Reardon said. "One's heart just has to go out to Mr. Hansbury's family."
In a telephone interview, Frank McIntosh, whose niece is married to Hansbury's brother, said that Hansbury was born and raised in Boston. Hansbury, the father of an 8-year-old boy, was living with his mother in Mattapan when he was killed, McIntosh said, adding, "He was a great guy."
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.
