Police surround, storm Dorchester home after 2 teens shot

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement, George Rizer, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

More than 20 heavily armed Boston police officers wearing helmets and holding riot shields stormed a boarded up three-decker this morning in Dorchester searching for a suspect in a shooting that sent two teenagers to a hospital with gunshot wounds.

The abandoned building on Hendry Street in Meeting House Hill was empty and police are still searching for the suspect who shot two 16-year-olds a few blocks away on Cameron Street. The victims were rushed to Boston Medical Center gunshot wounds that were not life-threatening, according to Deputy Superintendent Darrin Greeley of the Boston Police Department.

Witnesses had told police that a suspect ran into the abandoned home on Hendry Street after the shooting. A gun and a jacket that witnesses said had been worn by the shooter were found in a yard between the streets, police said. A SWAT team surrounded the triple-decker and a standoff followed that last more than two hours.

“We felt a need to search [the three-decker] for the safety of the neighborhood,” Greeley said after police determined that the building was empty.

Officers used a loud speaker to order any suspects to surrender and tossed a stun grenade inside the home before storming the building.

Witnesses heard a blast of gunfire at 8:30 a.m. on Cameron Street. Around the corner, young children were waiting in clusters to get picked up by buses for school.

“You heard five loud shots. Bang. Bang. Bang ...,” said a contractor working a block away on Bowdoin Street who was afraid to give his name. “You could see guys scurrying up the street.”

One teenager was shot in the arm and another was shot in the leg. They were both taken to Boston Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Officer Eddy Chrispin, a department spokesman.

The contractor said he saw one teen with a gunshot wound in his arm run around the corner to a Boston police field office on Hancock Street. The other teen was picked up by an ambulance on Cameron Street, a quiet road lined by neatly kept three-deckers.

This was the second early morning shooting in Boston this week. At 6:30 a.m. Monday, a 18-year-old was grazed by a bullet in the jaw as he left his home in Mattapan to go to school, police said. He survived.

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

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