Officers rally around wounded colleague

Officer Stephen Romano is an 11-year police veteran who loves the Patriots, golfing, and spending time with his three young children. Antonio Franklin is a 21-year-old gang member who could not resist the lure of drugs and guns.

On Wednesday night, their lives intersected with nearly deadly consequences.

Romano, who was assigned to patrol Dorchester as part of the Youth Violence Strike Force, knew Franklin as he knew all the gang members in his district, police said yesterday.

About 10 p.m., Romano saw Franklin, a member of the Geneva-Everton gang, on the turf of rival gang Crown Path and suspected Franklin might try to kill someone, prosecutors and police said.

When Romano, a state trooper, and another officer confronted Franklin, he sped away on a bicycle. As the officers pursued him, police said, Franklin shot Romano, wounding him in the side but missing vital organs. The trooper then shot Franklin in the right arm and side.

Franklin was arraigned yesterday on attempted murder charges at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Nursing a cut on his lip and a swollen right eye, he was held on $250,000 cash bail, and his bail on an April drug charge was revoked. "All right. Thank you," he said when a judge appointed him a lawyer. According to broadcast reports, Franklin was released into police custody last night.

Romano received well - wishers in his hospital room at Boston Medical Center, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

A Brighton native with a large family, Romano, 39, is known as a quiet, reserved officer with a sense of humor who tries to reason with the young people in his district, said officers in his unit.

"Steve has a lot of compassion for the kids in the neighborhood," said Officer Vance Mills, 40. "It's not all about locking people up . . . He can deal with a very tough situation and still have a smile on his face two minutes later."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino was dining with Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis in the North End when they heard about the shooting. While Davis went to the scene in front of John Marshall Elementary in Dorchester, the mayor went to the hospital. There, he said, he found Romano in good spirits.

"When his wife and mother came in there, he gave them a little smile," Menino said. "He's a hard-working police officer, does his job every day."

Romano's wife, Lynn, released a statement yesterday asking for privacy.

"Stephen is a strong individual who is recovering well," she said. "We also ask that you continue to keep Stephen, our family, and the many brave officers who risk their lives to protect others in your prayers."

Several relatives declined to comment yesterday, except to express relief that he survived.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with him," said one relative, who declined to give her name. "We're happy that he's going to be okay."

According to Dorchester District Court records, Franklin has been arrested on motor vehicle, drug, assault, and gun possession charges since 2004.

In September 2005, two officers found him with a gun and crouched inside a car at Geneva Avenue and Olney Street in Dorchester, according to court records. "It's mine," Franklin told the officers. "I thought it was a BB gun."

He served about a year in the Suffolk jail on the charges. In April, he was arrested again, this time on marijuana possession charges .

His childhood friend, Timothy Jefferson, said Franklin had been trying to complete his high school equivalency diploma and train to be a lifeguard this summer, but was derailed when he was shot in the leg earlier this year by people who knew him.

"He was going to get some spaghetti sauce for his grandmother, and they were waiting to get him," Jefferson said. "This is something that has been going on for a long time between Geneva Avenue and Four Corners."

Four Corners is a Dorchester neighborhood that is in the Crown Path gang's turf. Jefferson declined to say who the shooters were or why they targeted Franklin, who turned 21 Tuesday.

Yesterday morning, a woman coming out of Franklin's Geneva Avenue apartment identified herself as his mother. "I don't think it happened the way the police said it happened," she said.

Suzanne Smalley and John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com; Ballou at bballou@globe.com.