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Three-year-old boy, 70 year-old woman wounded in Dorchester shooting

E-mail|Link May 15, 2009 10:13 AM

(Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)

Boston Police outside O.M. May Liquors, where a woman and a child were injured by shots fired through the shop window.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Police have charged a 16-year-old with firing into a liquor store and wounding a 70-year-old woman and a 3-year-old boy who were inside the Dorchester shop.

The teen is being charged as a juvenile and his name is being withheld, police said this morning.

The boy was shot in his left hip and left buttocks, police said. The elderly woman was wounded in her right thigh. Both were transported to Boston Medical Center. Police would not release their identities because the are victims of a crime.

The shooting occurred around 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the O.M. May Liquors store on Bowdoin street.

Moments after the shooting, the teen was allegedly spotted by officers running down Hamilton Street. Someone shouted to police that the teen, who was wearing a red sweatshirt, was the shooter.

Officers pursued the teen into the backyard on Hamilton Street where he was captured at gunpoint as he tried to scale a fence topped with barbed wire, police said. Police recovered a black handgun with defaced serial numbers.

In a black backpack the teen was seen carrying, police found one white sneaker. Inside the store, police found a second white sneaker.

The teen is scheduled to be arraigned today in Dorchester Juvenile Court. He has been charged with juvenile delinquency, specifically assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, resisting arrest, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.

A motive for the shooting was unknown, police said. The Globe reported today that Earnest Apponte, 49, of Dorchester, said he was standing outside a market nearby when the shooting occurred.

"A guy ran by me, and out of nowhere he started shooting," Apponte said. "He pulled the gun out of [his waist]. He shot the baby, he shot the lady, and everything. I went inside and ducked. He came out and started running" down the street.

Apponte said the suspect was short and looked no older than 16 or 17.

"I saw the lady," Apponte said. "She was holding the baby, and the baby was screaming."