'We need to work . . . to stop this now'
Leaders voice grief, resolve
Community leaders and city officials reacted with outrage yesterday to the shooting death of an 8-year-old, the youngest person killed by gunfire in Boston since 2002.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino returned early from a conference in Los Angeles, Governor Deval Patrick reached out to city officials and community leaders, and more than a dozen local clergy members gathered at a church in Dorchester to mourn Liquarry Jefferson.
The first-grader at John P. Holland Elementary School in Dorchester died from a single shot to the abdomen, inflicted about 11:30 p.m. Sunday in his apartment on Seaver Street in Roxbury.
"The question is: Where did the gun come from?" Menino said at a news conference after landing at Logan International Airport last night.
He has received briefings on the shooting since shortly after it happened. "Things like this are happening on a daily basis in America. The illegal guns we have -- there are too many," the mayor said.
Liquarry is the youngest child fatally shot in the city since Malik Andrade-Percival, 3, was struck by gunfire in January 2002, when he bounded to his Dorchester apartment door to see who was there. In June 2002, 10-year-old Trina Persad was leaving a Roxbury park when she was killed by a shotgun blast police determined was meant for someone else.
"I'm saddened by the tragic death of this young boy," said the Rev. William E. Dickerson II, who met with other ministers at the Greater Love Tabernacle, the church where he is pastor. "My heart goes out to his family and the community, because someone so young with so much potential was taken from among us so soon."
News of a bullet cutting short another young life caromed across neighborhoods yesterday, through churches and into the highest levels of government, prompting outpourings of grief and, in some cases, guilt.
"I think it's important that the family knows how awful the city feels, that we've not been able to protect this young child, who is obviously innocent," said Maureen E. Feeney, president of the City Council.
The council demanded this year that Menino increase funding for youth programs and violence prevention for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The council is expected to vote on the budget tomorrow.
Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee, said he was floored yesterday by news of Liquarry's shooting. "I don't know where to begin," he said. "It's appalling."
Initial reports said armed gunmen had stormed into the house, but law enforcement officials said later that Liquarry was shot when another child was playing with a gun.
"The devastating news that his young life has been cut short by a senseless crime and that it took place within his own home saddens me," Menino said in a statement.
Patrick said he had been in touch with Menino's office and community leaders. "Not just as governor but as a parent, my heart aches for that family," he said.
"Regardless of the tragic circumstances, a young boy is dead, and that is unacceptable," Patrick's spokesman Joe Landolfi said.
Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty, vice chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee, said that Liquarry's death underscores a need to bridge a socioeconomic divide that has created "two Bostons."
Flaherty said that in some neighborhoods, the lack of economic opportunity often opens the door to crime and violence.
"While families from one Boston are planning their summer vacations, families in another are planning funerals," he said. "We need to work together to stop this now."
David Abel, John R. Ellement, and Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff and researcher Marleen A. Lee contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 