Man is found slain in his home in Roxbury

Police arrived on Harold Street in Roxbury on Thursday night to answer a burglar alarm. They left pursuing a murder investigation after discovering a man in his 50s dead with substantial trauma.

A law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the case identified the victim as Walter Jackson. Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said yesterday investigators do not know if he was shot, stabbed, or died in another way.

Officers found Jackson about 8:30 p.m. and he was pronounced dead at the scene. He was Boston's 61st homicide victim of 2006, three more than at the same point last year, when the city reached a 10-year high in homicides.

Two other law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation said the department's drug control unit had searched Jackson's address in recent weeks.

A close friend of Jackson's, who declined to give her name for safety reasons, sat in front of his house in her car yesterday grieving. She said she and her daughter were up all night trying to make sense of the slaying of a man who she said loved people and life. The man she knew as Mr. J. had worked for the Boston public schools until he hurt his back, she said.

"He'd give you anything but a cigarette; he'd give you clothes, money, anything," Jackson's friend said.

A neighbor, Kassam Abuhamande, said Jackson was a fun-loving and warm man who liked to tease him about his girlfriends.

Jackson's friend said he often accompanied her to the Foxwoods casino and most nights he played Keno in Roslindale. But earlier Thursday, she said, Jackson called her daughter and said he was tired and wanted to stay home.

She also said Jackson told her a woman slashed the tires on his car last week and she suggested Jackson was security conscious.

"He didn't let anyone into his house," she said. "He's got cameras in the house."

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com. Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.