Teen killed on bus was kidnapped

Unclear whether October abduction related to stabbing

The 16-year-old Roxbury youth fatally stabbed on New Year's Eve while riding an MBTA bus through Dorchester had been kidnapped in October, law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said.

The kidnapping disclosure came as authorities continued their search yesterday for the killer of Devonte Mauge-Franklin, also known as Devonte Dalvin-Franklin. Relatives could not be reached for comment yesterday.

One person was arrested in the abduction and is in custody, one of the law enforcement officials said. Police did not say whether there was any link between the crimes.

Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said no arrests have been made but the teenager's killer is being pursued by Transit and State police.

"Investigators are pursuing a variety of leads, but describing those leads would be inappropriate, unfortunate, and possibly damaging to this active investigation," he said.

Also yesterday, MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas said the transit system is working to keep riders safe.

"All of us are very concerned with making sure that people are safe, walking the streets or riding the bus," Grabauskas said. "Of course, it's a tragedy that something like this would happen, but we're doing our best to police the system."

He said he does not "take any comfort in the fact that it had been 21 months since we had a fatality in the system," but said it was "a very good record" considering that the T provides 350 million rides per year.

Grabauskas said more than 300 of the T's 1,000 buses have security cameras, as do all subway platforms and stations.

He said retrofitting the rest of the fleet is a priority, but that buses only get the cameras when they are pulled from service for other maintenance issues because the T would not have enough extra buses to run all the routes.

The bus Mauge-Franklin rode did not have a camera when he was attacked about 9:30 p.m., officials have said. The teen was riding on a Route 28 bus when he was stabbed multiple times near the intersections of Blue Hill Avenue and Harvard Street.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Transit police at 617-222-1212 or State Police detectives at 617-727-8817.

Maria Cramer of the Globe staff contributed to this report.