2 charged in double slaying that killed son of Boston antiviolence worker

By Globe Staff

Boston Police charged a man and a woman today with two counts of murder for a double slaying in Roxbury in August that killed the son of an antiviolence street worker.

Alexander Bolling, 24, and Taneika Britt, 31, were arrested this morning by the Boston Police Fugitive Unit. They are accused of killing Jessie Calhoun, 28, and, Robert F. Turner, the 20-year-old son of veteran Boston street worker Lorna Pleas. The men were gunned down at 2 a.m. Aug. 2 in a shooting on Williams Street that also wounded a third man whose name has not been released.

Bolling and Britt are expected to be arraigned today in Roxbury District Court on two counts of murder, armed assault with intent to murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

"Today my thoughts are with the family of Jesse Calhoun and Robert Turner," Boston Police Commissioner Davis Edward F. Davis said in a statement.

Bolling, of Mattapan, and Britt, of Taunton, were identified during an ongoing investigation by a special grand jury.

“The hard work of prosecutors in the grand jury and Boston Police detectives who conducted this investigation has resulted in the arrest of these two defendants, who are charged with deplorable crimes,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in the same statement.

Pleas has spent 12 years trying to dissuade young people from lives of violence on the streets. In August, Pleas told the Globe her son was a big teddy bear with a quick smile who loved to swim and fish and often gave piggyback rides to his older sister. He traveled to Ghana a few years ago to learn about slavery and returned a changed youth.

"He looked at life differently," said Pleas, surrounded by family and friends as she tearfully recalled the tragedy she has seen so often on the streets but prayed would never befall her family.

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