2 slain in Dorchester and Roxbury shootings
As Bostonians partied to celebrate the upcoming holidays, the peace that had prevailed on city streets for the month of December was shattered yesterday by two fatal shootings.
One of the shootings took place around 5:24 p.m. in Dorchester; the second around 9:26 p.m. in Roxbury.
The first shooting occurred outside the Geneva Grocery at 385 Geneva Ave., the third deadly shooting outside the store since 1990.
Emergency workers brought the man, who was in his 20s, to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Boston police said.
The slaying triggered fear and apprehension for many Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood residents, who said gun violence in the neighborhood has been a problem since last summer.
Angel Johnson, 51, said she ran down Geneva Street toward the market after learning of last night's shooting, concerned that it might be her son.
She stopped at the police tape blocking off the scene to ask police officers who the victim was. They had no information for her. Her son, also in his 20s, she said, was shot in the leg nearby last May.
"I'm sick of this," she said. "I need to get the hell out of Boston."
In 2003, a 3-year-old girl, Kai Leigh Harriott, was paralyzed when a bullet struck her as she played on a porch along nearby Bowdoin Street.
In March, a former Kentucky woman was fatally shot in the head as she left a late-night party on Geneva Avenue.
Days later, an 18-year-old college student was fatally shot in broad daylight on nearby Olney Street.
Just days before Thanksgiving, a 27-year old Quincy man was fatally stabbed at 519 Geneva St., blocks from the Geneva Grocery.
The market has also been the scene of violent episodes.
A 23-year-old was shot in the stomach and died in the doorway there in 2000.
And in 1990, 16-year-old Junior Fernandez was slain as he closed down his father's shop.
Fernandez's brother, William, said last night that his family still owns the building but sold the business after the shooting.
He said he was not surprised the violence has continued. He said gangs have operated in the neighborhood for years.
"I don't even like to drive by there," Fernandez said.
A man who answered the phone at the market last night but did not identify himself said he had heard shots fired outside the store, close enough to frighten him.
Minutes later, a customer told him someone had been shot outside. He declined to elaborate and hung up.
Police assigned additional foot patrols to the area in an effort to quell the violence there last summer. Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis also recently unveiled a program in which police will ask parents to let them search their children's rooms for guns.
That's not enough for resident Sammie Le, who said that after years of living in the neighborhood, she had put her family's home up for sale.
"I don't feel safe having my kids walk around here at night," she said. "There's always something happening on Geneva Street."
Police released few details about the second fatal shooting at 68 Cedar St. in Roxbury, across from the Nathan Hale School.
Homicide investigators scoured the parking lot of the brick townhouse-style development looking for clues.
One investigator, who wouldn't give his name, said a person had been shot and killed but would not provide further details.
Workers from the medical examiner's office carried a form shrouded in white down an outside staircase at the development to ground level. They then placed it on a gurney and wheeled it to a van in the parking lot.
The last homicide in Boston was Nov. 21. 