1 slain, 3 wounded in Roxbury shooting
City's homicide count increases to 75 for year
A succession of gunshots struck four young men on a well-lit Lower Roxbury street yesterday evening, killing one man and wounding three others, police said.
As Christmas lights twinkled in apartment windows overlooking Lenox Street near the corner of Shawmut Avenue, investigators below used yellow police tape to mark the latest shooting scene of 2005, a year that has seen increases in gun violence and a 10-year high in homicides in Boston. Small, numbered yellow markers located the spots on the street where evidence technicians identified shell casings.
Police Superintendent Bruce Holloway said at the scene last night that police had received a call about 6 p.m. reporting gunshots in front of 79 Lenox St. Police found three victims there and another nearby on Shawmut Avenue, he said, including one in critical condition who was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.
The other three victims were taken to local hospitals, where they were listed in stable condition with wounds that were not life-threatening, police said.
Police towed a damaged car from the scene of the shootings. The front passenger side window of the silver
Police did not release any details about the circumstances of the shooting last night and offered no information on possible suspects.
Neighbors and relatives said that three of the victims were brothers and members of a family from the neighborhood. Police would not identify the victims, though they said all four men appeared to be between the ages of 19 and 26.
A woman who identified herself as a cousin of the three brothers said that they were not troublemakers.
''They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Tieaste Love, 24. ''It's sad. It's every day now. Someone got shot. You don't even say, 'Oh, my God, someone got shot.' It happens that much."
The area is near an athletic field and playground where 23-year-old William ''Biggie" Gaines was shot to death in July 2004 as he coached a basketball game for 11- to 15-year-olds. In March 2004, a 21-year-old Boston man, Terry Edwards, was found shot to death at the corner of Shawmut and Lenox.
A woman who lives near the shooting scene, 31-year-old Gail Thompson, said she heard at least one gunshot. ''I'm very scared," she said.
The death brings Boston's homicide count to 75. There were 96 slayings in Boston in 1995.
Through last week, the number of reported shootings causing death or injury in the city this year had risen to 330, a 30 percent increase from the same period in 2004. Many of the victims have been 25 or younger.
Police and Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office have responded to the growing violence by holding emergency crime summits with key officials, seeking help from federal law enforcement agencies, redeploying police officers to trouble spots, and conducting sweeps of violence-prone neighborhoods to pick up people with outstanding criminal warrants.
Last night, hundreds of people gathered in Mattapan to volunteer to help counsel troubled youths and take part in citizen neighborhood patrols in an effort to quell the recent spate in violence.
Christopher Sumner -- executive director of the TenPoint Coalition, an antiviolence group -- said that one homicide was by itself a tragedy, but that 75 is ''way too many."
At the meeting, the coalition and the Black Ministerial Alliance launched their latest antiviolence plan. Sumner urged the group, which had assembled at Jubilee Christian Church International on Blue Hill Avenue, to take whatever actions they could as quickly as possible.
''My heart cries out," Sumner said. ''I think there needs to be an urgency right now."
The Rev. William E. Dickerson III, pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester, said he was outraged by the most recent shooting.
He decried a lack of jobs and education among Boston youths and called on former gang members to help current gang members abandon violence.
''There needs to be a clarion call federally and locally as related to our young boys dying in the streets," he said. ''To me, it's a state of emergency."
Globe correspondents Benjamin Freed, Aubrey Gibavic, Rich Cherecwich, Stephanie Peters and Michael Levenson contributed to this report. Ralph Ranalli can be reached at rranalli@globe.com. 