While he was out with his cousins about 12:30 a.m. yesterday, Joseph Clarke called his mother to make sure he was the first to wish her a happy birthday. An hour later, he was fatally shot.
"He asked if he was the first one to say happy birthday," his mother, Gem Richards, said while standing and crying last night on the front steps of her Dorchester home. "I told him 'yes,' and he said, 'Thank God.' They killed all of us inside."
Police officers found Clarke, nine days from his 24th birthday, shot in the head and lying near the corner of Norton and Bowdoin streets in Dorchester about 1:49 a.m. yesterday.
He was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.
Clarke, a carpenter who relatives said worked for a woodworking company in Jamaica Plain, is the city's first homicide victim of the year.
There also had been one homicide in the city at this time last year, police said. Jason Fernandes, 14, of Brockton, had been fatally shot outside his grandmother's home in Dorchester on New Year's Day 2007.
No arrests had been reported in Clarke's killing last night, and police said they were hoping witnesses would come forward.
"Detectives have been in touch with the family," said Eddy Chrispin, a police spokesman.
"There may have been an issue with witnesses coming forward, so we're urging anyone who witnessed it to contact us," he added.
Clarke's friends and family members gathered last night at his mother's home. Clarke, who has four siblings, lived in Dorchester with an older sister and graduated from West Roxbury High School, relatives said.
Family members said Clarke was dating a girl who had a child with another man. That man, family members said, had previously threatened Clarke.
His family said he had never been in trouble with police and that he was a simple person who enjoyed eating cereal, watching wrestling, and entertaining others. Last summer, Clarke dressed as a clown for his neighbor's 6-year-old twins' birthday party.
He also enjoyed telling jokes and listening to soft-rock music.
"He loved Magic [106.7]," said his sister, Latina, 22. "He was not afraid to express his feelings. He was really soft-hearted."
Family members said Clarke looked out for his family and spent much of his earnings on Christmas gifts for them.
"When we were kids, we would always fight," said Latina, his younger sister. But things changed between the siblings. "He was my older brother, he protected me. I'm hurt."
Anyone with information about yesterday's shooting can call police at 617-343-4470 or text "tip" to 27463 (crime) to remain anonymous.
