Shooting victims targeted, kin allege

Boys said gunman approached them

A 19-year-old man is being questioned in the nonfatal shooting of three children who were playing outside at a housing complex Saturday night when a gunman sprayed them with bullets, police said.

Relatives said they do not know why the children, ages 11 and 12, were targeted at the Academy Homes I apartment complex in Roxbury, which has historically been a hot spot for gang violence and where tenants are organizing to increase security.

The sister of one of the victims said their mother asked the 12-year-old whether the assailant seemed to be shooting randomly.

"He said, 'No, Mommy, he was shooting at us,' " said the sister, who gave her name only as Jackie and said her brother was shot in the leg.

The two other victims are 11, police said. Two boys were being treated at Boston Medical Center and the third at Children's Hospital Boston, authorities said. The children's names were not released.

The boys were shot while playing outside the apartment of one of the 11-year-olds, whose 13-year-old sister said yesterday that the shooting has persuaded her family to leave the complex.

"My dad is moving us out," said the girl, who said she and her brother live with their aunt and grandmother at the apartment.

Police said the shooting was reported about 8:10 p.m. outside the apartment on Academy Terrace, within the complex, which fronts Columbus Avenue between Ritchie Street and Academy Road in Roxbury.

The two relatives who spoke to the Globe said the boys were talking and playing when a person they described as an older teen approached them.

"All of a sudden, my brother and his friends tried to walk away, and this boy got in his face and shot at him," the 13-year-old said of her brother, who was wounded in the left thigh. "He was in shock."

The children ran from the scene to their homes, said Jackie, whose little brother headed across the complex to their apartment on Slayton Way.

Police and prosecutors have blamed violent episodes at the complex on an ongoing rivalry between a gang associated with Academy Homes I and a second group associated with the nearby Bromley-Heath housing complex.

Police did not say yesterday whether they believe Saturday's shooting was gang-related.

The girls said their brothers are not associated with gangs.

"He just goes to school, plays soccer, and minds his own business," the 13-year-old said of her brother.

Jackie said the boys are always outside playing freeze tag, soccer, or anything to pass the time.

"They're just a bunch of little kids," Jackie said, leaning out the second-floor window of her apartment.

About the time of the shooting, police responded to a call about a person shot on the other side of Columbus Avenue near the Jackson Square MBTA Station.

They found a 19-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the foot. The man told police he heard what sounded like a gunshot and then felt a pain in his ankle and realized he was shot, according to a press release from Boston police.

A Boston police source, who asked not to be named because of the ongoing investigation, said police are conducting ballistics tests on a gun recovered near that scene to determine whether it was used in the shooting of the three boys.

The source also said police are investigating whether the 19-year-old may have accidentally shot himself in the foot.

Police said the man, whose name was not released yesterday, was charged with possession of marijuana and was taken to the hospital to be treated for his injury.

He remained in custody yesterday on the drug charge and was being questioned in the Academy Homes shooting, police said.

David James Wyatt, vice president of the Academy Homes One Tenants' Council, said yesterday that the complex is working with the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. to have security cameras installed next week.

The complex is also in talks with the private community development financing agency to employ 24-hour security guards.

Academy Homes I, an affordable-housing development owned by the community development corporation Urban Edge, depends on Boston police to conduct sporadic patrols of the complex.

The cameras "are going to be in these globes, so that it is not possible from the outside to know where they're aimed," Wyatt said.

"We hope this will deter crime, and in the event that crime occurs, we'll know who the perpetrators are."

The security measures have been in the works for months and are not in response to Saturday's shooting, Wyatt said. The talks have been underway between tenants and WinnResidential, which in May began managing Urban Edge's residential and commercial rental properties.

The complex is also considering establishing a community crime watch, he said.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.