Man, 22, dies of wound in shooting at Roxbury apartments

Police say they have no suspects

A 22-year-old Roxbury man who moved back from Maryland six months ago was shot dead on a walkway in his apartment complex Saturday night, just steps from where children and families were reveling at a cookout, relatives and neighbors said.

Boston police said yesterday that they had no suspects in the shooting that happened about 8:45 p.m. Saturday near a crowded courtyard at the Academy Homes apartments at Columbus Avenue and Ritchie Street.

The victim was Cheickoumar Kake, who attended elementary school in Roxbury but had been living in Maryland until last year, said his uncle, Mohamed Haidara, 44. "He wanted to come and start his life here and get a job," Haidara said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Kake was living with his uncle at Academy Homes while working at a nearby Burger King in Dorchester and working on earning his GED, Haidara said.

Much of the Academy Homes community was gathered in a courtyard in front of 12 Weaver Court within the complex for a cookout Saturday evening, said three teenagers who live there and declined to give their names to a reporter. On the opposite side of the Weaver Court building, a group of young children was gathered at a picnic table, one of the teens said.

Residents said the complex had been the site of two nonfatal shootings in recent months.

Ann Spencer, who lives in another Weaver Court building, heard the gunshots and ran outside to see the victim lying on a path near the picnic tables clutching his chest with his right hand. He was surrounded by a group of residents, many of whom had come over from the cookout.

"I was telling people to move away so he could get some air," Spencer said.

Paramedics transported Kake to Boston Medical Center, where he died of the gunshot wound to his chest, police said.

Spencer, who said she has lived in the complex for 17 years, said it has a reputation for gun violence.

"If they see a face they don't know, they go after the person," Spencer said. "My family doesn't really come visit me."

Boston police have been investigating gang tensions between a group associated with Academy Homes and a rival group associated with the Bromley Heath housing complex.

Last month, two men shot repeatedly at an Acura with three men in it that was headed out of the complex, police said. Boston police detectives, who were at the complex investigating recent gang-related shootings, chased the shooters out of the complex and arrested them nearby. Police said they believe that shooting was gang-related.

Boston police spokesman Eddy Chrispin would not say whether officers believed Saturday's shooting was gang-related. He said that extra patrols would continue in the complex.

"We've had ongoing patrols in there for a while now," Chrispin said. "We have specifically targeted that area based on citizen concerns and our intelligence."

Haidara said he did not know of his nephew being involved in a gang.

"From the time he's been here with me, there was no trouble with the police," he said.

Residents said the shooting had them worried that violence might escalate through the summer.

One of the teenagers from the neighborhood predicted, "There's definitely going to be a war here in the summer."

The murder was the 22d this year in the city, compared with 21 at the same time last year, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the police department's homicide unit at (617) 343-4470. Anonymous tips can be sent by calling 1-800-494-TIPS or texting the word "TIP" to CRIME (27463).

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.