< Back to front page Text size – +

Police close off two Roxbury blocks during search

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 2, 2009 03:36 PM

By Vivian Nereim, Globe Staff

Boston police shut down two blocks of Dudley Street in the city's Roxbury neighborhood for several hours today because they said they thought someone with a firearm might have been in the apartment they were searching.

Police had a warrant to search the apartment, but a spokesman for the police would not say for what or whom they were searching. Earlier today, a police spokesman had said that they had reports of someone barricaded in the apartment. Later, another police spokesman said the report of the barricade was false.

The block on either side of 2 Dudley Terrace was barricaded by police cars. Pedestrians were forced to detour, and residents waited in the rain or inside their apartments, unable to come and go. A SWAT team also arrived at the apartment after 10 a.m.

"They wanted to take every precaution to keep surrounding neighbors safe," said Boston police spokesman James Kenneally.

Some residents who were trying to return to their apartments were forced to wait in the pouring rain for more than an hour. Police reopened the block around 1 p.m., and the scene was fully cleared by 2:40 p.m.

Naeemah Blount, who lives in the Dudley Terrace complex where the standoff occurred, was drenched, without an umbrella and without her cellphone, unable to return to her apartment. “I understand they’re doing it for people's safety,” she said, “but I still want to go home.”

Anna Rodriguez, who lives on Humphrey Street, holding a small umbrella, was unable to pass through to Dudley Square until the police barricade was opened. Waiting next to a pregnant resident who declined to give her name, she said, "This neighborhood just doesn’t stop."