While Cristian Guerrero was helping customers inside Geneva Grocery Friday evening, he heard about a half-dozen shots echo outside the Dorchester store.
The 12-year employee of the convenience store said he turned around to look out the window after hearing the shots and saw people scrambling down the street.
"I heard it, but I didn't know how close it was," said Guerrero. "I looked outside and saw people running. . . . We ducked."
Guerrero said he went outside later and saw two men who had moments earlier purchased a couple bottles of juice at the store. One of the men was bleeding in a car parked in front of the store formerly known as Fernandez Market, and the other was lying on the sidewalk, but was unharmed, Guerrero said.
The man in the car was the first of two men shot to death Friday in two apparently separate killings.
"There is no reason to believe they are related, and nothing so far dictates a connection," Eddy Chrispin, Boston police spokesman said yesterday.
Police did not release details, including a motive or number of times each person was shot in yesterday's killings. Police would only say that the two were black men in their 20s and would not identify them.
Police have not made an arrest in either case, and an investigation continues.
The two deaths raised Boston's homicide count to 66 and broke the city's 27-day stretch without a homicide.
At this time last year, there were 72 homicides in the city. The number reached 74 by the end of the year.
The man outside Geneva Grocery was shot once and taken to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Guerrero said he recognized the men as frequent patrons of the convenience store, but said he did not know their names. The uninjured man got up and walked away shortly after the shooting, Guerrero said.
"You can't help but think it could have come through the window," said Guerrero.
The Geneva Avenue shooting occurred at about 5:24 p.m. About four hours later, another man was found shot near 68 Cedar St. in Roxbury, near the Fort Hill housing complex.
The man was found shot multiple times in front of the building and was pronounced dead at a local hospital, police said.
Yellow police tape remained scattered around the complex yesterday, some of it tied to the railing of a building's stoop, some balled up and discarded in the snow.
Residents of the complex were distraught by the news of the shooting.
"It's young kids," said one man leaving the complex yesterday who asked not to be identified. "It's sad. What we need is more police out here walking the beat."
Before Friday's slayings, Ruel Davis, was the last person to be killed in the city. The 21-year-old from Dorchester was shot Nov. 23 on Walnut Avenue in Roxbury, in front of his girlfriend's apartment.
Anyone with information on the shootings is asked to call police at 617-343-4470 or to text "TIP" to 27463.
