Police investigate possible link in 2 fatal shootings

As he had done many times before, 18-year-old Cedrick Steele stepped into his uncle's barbershop on Dudley Street in Roxbury on Wednesday afternoon and struck up a casual conversation.

Steele, who had attended Madison Park High School in Roxbury, told his uncle, Otis Steele, that he was doing fine and that his classes at Bunker Hill Community College were going well. Then, with a smile on his face, he walked out of the barbershop and headed for Ace's Market, a convenience store also owned by his uncle a quarter mile away at Centre and Highland streets. He was hungry and wanted to pick up one of his favorites, hot sausage.

But as Steele stood near the front of the small convenience store, across the street from the Timilty Middle School, he was approached by a group of youths, from which came a hail of gunfire, witnesses said. Steele was shot six times.

Five minutes after watching his nephew walk out of his barbershop, Otis Steele received a call from his wife telling him Cedrick had been shot. Three hours later, the teenager was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Steele was the second 18-year-old shot to death near a school in the past week. No arrests have been made in either case.

Last Friday, Quinntessa Blackwell was killed while walking home from a convenience store in Dorchester. Witnesses said that as she lay dying, she repeatedly uttered the name Cedric.

Deputy Superintendent Daniel Coleman, chief of the Police Department's homicide unit said: "Both investigations are actively moving forward. As a matter of course, detectives routinely investigate the possibility of a connection between violent crimes. Right now, it is unclear what, if any, connection exists, but detectives will explore that circumstance."

Ginnairiss Blackwell, Quinntessa's sister, said yesterday, "We heard that his name was Cedrick, but to us it's just a coincidence, nothing else. Right now, we are trying to bury my sister."

The Rev. William Dickerson II, pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester, said he knew the Steele family, having performed Otis Steele's wedding 13 years ago. "He's a good man, a community leader, and an entrepreneur. Cedrick, I didn't know as well, but I did know he was an upbeat kid who loved his family."

Otis Steele said his nephew grew up in the neighborhood and loved to play basketball with his childhood buddies. "I always talked to him about the importance of an education, and he seemed to be listening. . . .

"You've got good and bad kids in the community, and you can't really disassociate yourself from the bad ones because they're a part of the community too," said Steele, standing near the makeshift memorial in front of his convenience store and shaking the hands of two men who told him they had recently lost sons to street violence.

Steele said his sister, Mahalia Steele, raised Cedrick.

"I used to go to this store when I was a kid, and now I own it. I've tried to help out some of the kids around here, giving them jobs on the weekends," Steele said, rubbing his hands. "We're destroying each other."