When Jahmol Norfleet was gunned down in front of his grandmother's Roxbury apartment building in November 2006, some community members feared the truce he helped lead between two city gangs would die with him.
Instead, the cease-fire the 20-year-old brokered between the H-Block and Heath Street gangs has held up over the past year, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the original truce. And the effort to quell gang shootings has flourished in other parts of the city.
Since the killing of Norfleet, a former leader of H-Block, police have used the truce as a template for a successful cease-fire between two South End gangs and are now considering more negotiations between smaller gangs in other parts of the city, said the offi cials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the truce publicly.
"I attribute the success of the truce directly to the young men themselves," said the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, a cofounder of the Boston TenPoint Coalition who helped lead the original truce. "They have made choices and decisions not only on behalf of their block, but on behalf of the community in general. It is, in my opinion, one of the most significant actions that I've seen people on the street do in a very long time."
In the South End in November 2006, ministers and Boston and school police negotiated a truce last year between two gangs, dramatically reducing violence in the area: Shootings fell 91 percent in the area where the gangs congregated, police said. Around Humboldt Street, where the H-Block gang congregated, and Bromley Heath, the Jamaica Plain housing complex where the Heath Street gang was active, the number of shootings declined 55 percent after the truce.
Publicly, police say that they have not determined whether the shootings that did occur in those areas were a result of gunfire between gangs, but that the numbers are encouraging.
"We view it as a promising tactic," Commissioner Edward F. Davis said of the truce.
But the officials with knowledge of the negotiations said H-Block and Heath Street members had stopped shooting each other.
They said future truces would generally resemble the cease-fire, in which police commanders, Boston School Police, youth workers, and ministers met with gang members from both sides at a carefully arranged summit in Dorchester. There, the members agreed not to go into each other's territory, not to shoot each other at public events, and to call a minister before retaliating.
In turn, truce organizers provided some gang members with jobs with the help of the mayor's office and established a tutoring program for those who wanted to take high school equivalency tests.
In the months that followed the summit, truce organizers provided biweekly church services at Bromley Heath. Ministers and youth workers met regularly with gang members, to talk or on occasion take them to a Celtics game.
But challenges remain. Some gang members with criminal records have been unable to find jobs because of their pasts.
"There is a lot more work to do," said Rufus Faulk, a truce organizer and youth outreach worker with Boston TenPoint. "We need these kids to be productive, not just to stop shooting at each other."
To replicate the success of Heath Street and H-Block, gang members must want peace, said Faulk. Faulk said Norfleet came to him looking for a way to end the feud with Heath Street, and then brought several friends with him to the summit.
"If it wasn't for Jahmol Norfleet, there wouldn't have been anything like that," he said. "You can't pick any two groups and say we want to put you in the room. Unless they're receptive, unless they're at that point where they want to put their guns down and say 'I want to stop,' it's not going to work."
Norfleet's shooting remains unsolved. In December 2006 , police arrested Jerome Brody, 19, for gun possession after they found two weapons in his rental car - one of which was connected to Norfleet's shooting. Brody, who has not been charged with murder, remains a person of interest, Davis said.
Since Norfleet's killing, his friends and family have found small, tangible ways to keep his memory alive.
His younger sister, Thea, who was standing next to him when he was shot, and his girlfriend, Kendra Jones, tend to the enormous makeshift memorial they created outside the apartment on Holworthy Street. Last Wednesday, on what would have been his 22d birthday, they added balloons to the teddy bears, artificial flowers, and framed photos of Norfleet.
They, Norfleet's friends, and Rev. Miniard Culpepper, the pastor at Norfleet's church, recently finished filming a video about the peace Norfleet started.
"We have to keep him alive," Jones said.
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.
