Response to growing violence
Federal agents join probe of slayings
Federal law enforcement authorities said yesterday they are joining the hunt for whoever shot four youths to death in a Dorchester basement recording studio. Meanwhile, investigators questioned friends and students at the high school the slain youths attended in Wakefield.
Superintendent Maynard Suffredini Jr. said yesterday that police had questioned two or three students at Wakefield High School Thursday with their parents present.
Wakefield Police Chief Richard E. Smith said that the students were questioned because they knew the victims and that police were ''fact-finding right now."
''You have to know your victims to find out who your bad guy is," he said.
After a closed-door morning meeting at Boston City Hall, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan announced that agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will assist in the investigation into the deaths of three aspiring hip-hop artists and a friend Tuesday night in the city's bloodiest crime in a decade.
''I was horrified when I learned of the deaths of these four young men," Sullivan said. He said the federal agencies have pledged to help Boston police by seeking leads from their own informants and by offering profilers, analysts, or any technical help that might be requested.
Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole said the involvement of federal authorities does not signal efforts to build a federal case against the killer or killers, but rather is an effort by agencies that have been working with Boston police on gun violence to provide additional resources.
O'Toole said police working around the clock since the slayings had ruled out robbery, gangs, and drugs as motives. She pleaded once again for the public's help in finding a black Ford Escort, with the Massachusetts license plate 867-ECX, which was seen fleeing the scene and may contain vital evidence.
''We really do want to find that car," said O'Toole.
The commissioner said that many people have come forward with information to help the police, although the investigation has yet to uncover a motive.
''I think it's too premature to say whether it was one person or more" who killed the young men, O'Toole said. Police were continuing to interview relatives, friends and associates of the four victims, she said.
Relatives of one of the victims, Edwin Duncan, have speculated that a feud over music may have triggered the homicides. Duncan and two other victims, 21-year-old Jason Bachiller and 19-year-old Christopher Vieira , belonged to a fledgling rap group called Graveside. The fourth victim, 22-year-old Jihad Chankhour, was visiting them at the amateur recording studio in the basement of Duncan's house at 43 Bourneside St. when all were gunned down.
Elizabeth Barani, Vieira's mother, said that a few youths wanted to join the band and that ''one wanted to get in badly, but didn't make it." She said her husband gave that information to police, and she speculated that jealousy could have been a motive for the slayings.
Jelani Haynes, 21, who said he was a founding member of the band, said yesterday that Bachiller called him about 5 p.m. Tuesday, but Haynes told him he had other plans and wouldn't be meeting them at the studio. He said he was shocked when he got a call later that night saying his friends had been killed.
''We just don't know why anyone would do this," Haynes said in an interview. ''I just keep using the same word, I just felt shock, just shock."
Haynes said he had been hanging out at the basement studio the previous night with Duncan, Bachiller, and Bachiller's girlfriend and left about 1 a.m. Tuesday because Duncan said he was tired. But he said Duncan didn't seem worried about anything.
''Nothing seemed out of the ordinary," Haynes said. ''We were talking about song concepts. The equipment wasn't really working, so we were just throwing out ideas."
During the interview with Haynes, police came to question him for the first time. Later, he said he couldn't talk about the case.
Lyrics on a Graveside mix tape contain references to neighborhood competition and confrontation, but some local rap community members say such writing is usually rooted in fantasy.
''They were trying to find out what would sell," said Alveta Haynes, Jelani's mother. ''The stuff they wrote about wasn't from personal experience."
Donovan Slack of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Franci R. Ellement contributed to this report. Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com. 