Holiday shootings leave 2 dead

A makeshift memorial sits at the spot where their friend was shot and killed on Malta Street Thursday morning, complete with letters of mourning, candles, bottles of liquor, a pair of Timberland boots, and several teddy bears.

It was one way to remember Paul Brown, a 29-year-old from Mattapan who was gunned down a block from his home early Thanksgiving Day.

Friends who remembered Brown yesterday decried his violent death in a neighborhood where they said they simply hang out and keep to themselves, socializing with beer and barbecue after a hard day's work.

The killing of Brown was the first of several shootings in the city in a holiday morning of violence. Brown was outside a residence on Malta Street with two friends shortly after midnight when two men came from around the corner and one of them shot at him with a semiautomatic weapon, his friends said. Brown died at Boston Medical Center.

About 1:44 a.m., police in Dorchester responded to a shooting in an apartment on Talbot Avenue. Anthony Lewis, 25, was killed, police said.

About 2:10 a.m., two men were shot and two others sustained minor injuries in a shooting at Prescott and Bremen streets in East Boston. The men are expected to survive their injuries, police said.

Police learned that the gunman had left the scene in a gold Honda Accord and found a car matching that description on Chelsea Street, headed toward Maverick Square in East Boston, police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in statements.

When police pursued the car, the driver ignored the officers' lights, sirens, and orders to stop the car. After a brief chase, the driver pulled over on Sumner Street, Conley said.

Officers found several rounds of ammunition in the car and smelled gunpowder, Conley said. Police returned Holvin G. Cruz, 32, of Lynn, to the scene, where witnesses identified him as the shooter.

A spokesman for the district attorney declined to comment about a possible motive for the shooting. Neither Cruz nor his attorney, William Keefe, could be reached for comment.

Police charged Cruz with four counts of assault with intent to murder, four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, and failure to stop for police.

Cruz was ordered held on $100,000 bail yesterday and was scheduled to return to court on Jan. 7, Conley said.

Police said the shooting of Lewis and Brown remained under investigation yesterday. According to police, 56 people have died from gunfire this year, compared with 62 at this time last year.