Davis, on city street, tries to allay fears
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis met with business owners along Centre Street in Jamaica Plain yesterday afternoon, a day after a rash of shootings in the city that included a fatal attack on a young man at a nearby basketball court.
Flanked by more than a half-dozen uniformed officers, Davis strolled along Centre Street for roughly 45 minutes, ducking into various stores to talk with owners and sales clerks, in an effort to reassure them after the shooting death in broad daylight Monday of Luis Troncoso, 20, of Dorchester at Southwest Corridor Park.
"The officers said you have had some trouble," Davis said to Rafael Mejia Jr., owner of Evelyn's Market, as the two stood alongside the check-out counter.
Meijia explained that he suspects that youth and young adults come into the store often to hide from police.
"So maybe more foot patrols?" Davis offered.
"That would be a help," Meijia responded. "They were out there for a while."
Earlier in the day, Davis called the Troncoso case and the two other shootings Monday that left five other people wounded troubling and pledged police would work to keep the public safe, while pointing out that overall violent crime is down in the city.
"We have to stay out there in the street," Davis said. "We have to push forward with our initiatives to make sure that this city is the safest city in America. That's our goal."
Davis said that Troncoso was well known to police, but he declined to say more about him. He said State Police are the main investigators because the 4 p.m. shooting took place in the park, which is state property.
Two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation said authorities believed the shooting was gang-related.
But Troncoso's 19-year-old sister, Rosi, said her brother was not involved in a gang.
"My brother was not in a gang and was not chief of a gang," she said, adding that her brother was a responsible father of two infant daughters and was about to start training to be part of an airline ground crew.
Davis said that the shootings Monday night that left four men injured in Dorchester were also gang-related, the result of an ongoing feud between two gangs in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation of the shooting of a 13-year-old boy at a South End housing development said the boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was talking to people believed to be involved in a gang feud. The Globe is withholding the boy's name at the request of police.
While many Jamaica Plain business owners and residents thanked Davis for stopping by the neighborhood, others said they doubted his visit would do anything to alleviate the violence and a bolstered police presence wouldn't last.
"Everyone is around because the past couple of days a lot has been going on," Mejia said. "But give it a week, and they won't be around here any more."
