Spate of violence sets off worries
Man dies, 5 injured in shootings in city
A 20-year-old Boston man died and at least five other people were injured in a spate of shootings across the city yesterday that raised concerns about a possible spike in violence as the weather warms.
Law enforcement officials said they did not believe the three separate shooting episodes were related.
The bloodshed began early yesterday with the wounding of a 13-year-old in the South End and flared late yesterday afternoon with a deadly shooting in Jamaica Plain and more gun violence in Dorchester that left four people injured.
In Jamaica Plain, Luis Troncoso became the city's 18th slaying victim this year, compared with 17 at the same time last year. He was shot about 4 p.m. on a basketball court at Southwest Corridor Park and was pronounced dead shortly after at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office.
Law enforcement officials said Troncoso was shot in the head.
About 30 family members and friends gathered last night at his home, in a three-decker on Harvard Avenue in Dorchester. Some were quiet, while others talked and cried. Family members said the father of two young daughters often played basketball in Jamaica Plain, and they characterized his killing as a random act of violence.
"So much of this happens on the streets . . . it just has to stop," said 20-year-old Charlene Maldonado, Troncoso's girlfriend and mother of his youngest daughter, 5 months old.
"You're just hurting the families," she said. "You have to be reasonable."
Troncoso was about to start training for a ground crew job for a major airline at Logan International Airport, said his 19-year-old sister, Rosi.
Wark said witnesses described the suspect in the Jamaica Plain shooting as a black man between the ages of 18 and 20 who was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, and a baseball cap.
Local and State Police roped off a basketball court and a field and interviewed teenagers and young adults. Police blocked off two side streets near the park. State Police were leading the investigation because the park is state property.
The crime scene shattered the tranquillity of this neighborhood of meticulously painted houses that is unaccustomed to deadly violence, residents said. Residents each spring hold a widely popular Wake Up the Earth Festival at that park, which is across the street from the MBTA's Stony Brook subway stop on the Orange Line.
"This is happening way too close to home," said Jose Diaz, a resident who had to ride his bicycle around the crime scene. "We are becoming walking targets. It's getting out of control."
As police investigated the scene, four people were shot about two hours later at Whittemore Terrace and Hancock Street in Dorchester, where residents and business owners have been working hard to improve the neighborhood, said police Superintendent Robert Dunford.
One victim ran into a nearby restaurant called Ka-Carlos. A man who was in the restaurant at the time, Tony Pina, said the victim was bleeding from his chin. He asked patrons to call police and told them he had been shot.
"It's tough, it's scary," said Pina. "Been here 25 years, never seen anything like this."
An MBTA police sergeant patrolling Hancock Street heard the gunfire. When he arrived, he saw a group of young men running from the intersection and chased them, grabbing one male. That person was later questioned at the Dorchester district station, said Dunford, who sped to the area.
"We don't know what role he played in this," he said of the male being questioned.
Two victims went by ambulance to Boston Medical Center. Another went to the hospital on his own and was admitted and the fourth went in an ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said Officer James Kenneally, a Boston police spokesman.
At the Jamaica Plain shooting scene, some residents said that on occasion they have seen guns flashed on the basketball court, while others said that some drug activity occurs a few streets away, but for the most part they feel safe in their neighborhood.
"All in all, this is a decent place to live," said Tony Miles, a 40-year-old chief executive officer of a nonprofit that assists the elderly. "Hopefully, the shooting is an isolated event."
A 15-year-old who declined to give his name said he was disturbed by the shooting. The youth, sporting a Boston College High School T-shirt and holding a basketball, said he walks to the basketball court regularly to avoid the possibility of violence at parks closer to his home at the Bromley-Heath housing development about a mile away.
"I come here to stay away from that place. I guess I'll have to travel further to play basketball," he said.
David Kokorowski, 35, a textbook publishing product manager, said he may rethink living in the neighborhood, where he and his family moved 18 months ago.
"It's a little scary because I have a 17-month-old, and he and my wife could have been here," said Kokorowski, who was riding his bicycle home from work.
"We're renting, but thinking about buying," he added. "I'm not sure we would change our minds about our plans, but it brings home the crime reputation we heard about Jamaica Plain before we moved here."
Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said the city has been working proactively to prevent youth from violence this summer, starting earlier than usual. City workers are going door-to-door to tell teens about nonviolent activities and adults about crime prevention groups in which they can become involved.
Joyce added, "As warm weather comes up, we always get concerned about violence. We will make sure police are out there in full force."
Dunford stressed that the city's overall crime is down, including shootings, assaults, and rape. According to the Boston Police Department, between Jan. 1 and April 13, there were 45 shootings in the city, compared with 73 during the same period last year.
Globe correspondents John M. Guilfoil, Jillian Jorgensen, and Sarah Gantz contributed to this report.
