Murder victim reportedly shot in front of school bus

A fatal shooting that took place Thursday evening in Roxbury reportedly happened in front of a Boston Public Schools bus with children inside.

The shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 at the intersection of Dearborn and Ziegler streets. According to WBZ, the shooting happened when a fight escalated. Someone pulled a gun and shot a man in the head. The shooting happened in front of a bus with three children inside, WBZ reports. Neither the children nor the bus driver were injured.

It was unclear if the children witnessed the shooting, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told reporters.

I think it’s brazen when you’re [shooting] out here on a busy street with a lot of young children riding home,” the Boston Globe quoted him as saying.

Emergency responders took the victim, a man who police believe was in his 20s, to Boston Medical Center, according to the Boston Herald, where he was pronounced dead.

Just an hour later, another shooting took place about a half mile from the first, at Aspen and Dunreath streets in Roxbury. One victim, a man, was taken to Boston Medical Center to be treated for his injuries. At the time of the shootings, police said they did not appear to be connected, according to the Herald.

Evans asked anyone with information about the fatal shooting to come forward, “for the sake of the community.”

People with information about either shooting can leave tips with the Boston Police Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470, or call the BPD’s anonymous tippling at 1-800-494-TIPS. Anonymous tips can also be texted to 27463.

Man killed in Jamaica Plain was grandson of community activist

The man who was killed in Jamaica Plain early yesterday was the grandson of a well-known community advocate.

Nigel Louis Hailey, 42, of Columbus, Ohio, was killed shortly before 1 a.m. early Tuesday morning inside the apartment building 267 Centre St., which is part of the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments, formerly known as the Bromley-Heath housing development. Hailey was shot multiple times, and he died from his injuries at the hospital.

The apartment complex where Nigel Hailey was killed was renamed in May for Mildred Hailey, a longtime resident of Bromley-Heath who was a public housing advocate and organizer. Decades ago helped created a tenant-led group to address problems in the development. She later became manager of the developer, according to the Boston Globe. She died last year at age 82.

The Boston Herald reports that Nigel Hailey was Mildred’s grandson. He is also the nephew of a minister at Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan, according to the paper.

On Tuesday afternoon Boston Police told Boston City Councilor Matt O’Malley that investigators did not believe the shooting was random. Officers have not yet made any arrests in connection with the shooting, and ask anyone with information to call Boston Police Department homicide detectives at 617-343-4470.

People who wish to leave anonymous tips can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

Dorchester’s 14th murder victim identified

Update: Boston Police officially identified Cardoso as the victim on Oct. 6.

Friends and family have identified the man shot and killed this past Tuesday night in Dorchester.

Jonathan Cardoso, 21, was shot just after 8 p.m. Sept. 20 near 55 Downer Ave. Police have not yet officially identified Cardoso as the victim, but at the time of the shooting said the victim was a man in his early 20s. After arriving on the scene, Boston EMS technicians transported Cardoso to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Jonathan Cardoso

Jonathan Cardoso

Cardoso leaves behind his mother and two sisters. A memorial fundraiser has been set up on in Cardoso’s name, to help with funeral costs, as well as travel costs for relatives traveling to Boston from Cape Verde for Cardoso’s services.

Police have not made any arrests in connection with the murder. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. People who wish to leave anonymous tips may do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

Dorchester triple shooting leaves 1 dead

One man is dead and two others are injured after a shooting in the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 17.

The shooting happened around 2:15 a.m. near the intersection of Wales and Nightingale streets in Dorchester. Police officers responded to a call for a person shot in the area and found three men, all in their 20s, on the ground in the area.

Phillip Woods

Phillip Woods

Two men suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to the hospital to be treated. A third man, Phillip Woods, 23, was pronounced dead on the scene.

One woman who lives near where the shooting occurred told the Boston Herald she woke up and found a bullet hole just inches from her window. Another woman who lives nearby told the Herald the area is not well-lit at night, which she believes is contributing to the unsafe environment for young people.

Family members set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money for Woods’ funeral and other final expenses.

Police have not arrested any suspects in connection with the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Alternatively, people can leave anonymous tips by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

Witnesses: Man shot while hanging with friends on sidewalk

A man shot and killed in Dorchester Wednesday evening was reportedly hanging out with a group of friends on the sidewalk when a man walked up to him and shot him.

Relatives identified the victim to the Boston Globe as 21-year-old Roland Singleton. Singleton was a father of a 2-year-old girl, the Globe reports.

Roland Singleton

Roland Singleton

The incident happened just before 7:45 p.m. outside 10 Ripley Rd. in Dorchester, near Ripley Playground. Witnesses told the Boston Herald that a man in a hooded sweatshirt walked up to Singleton and fired his gun, shooting multiple times and hitting Singleton in the head.

Friends and relatives described Singleton to WBZ and the Globe as a man who was a good friend and devoted to his daughter. The youngest of eight children, Singleton grew up in Roxbury and lost both of his parents by the age of 16, according to the Globe.

Singleton’s death marked Boston’s 25th homicide of 2016.

Police have not made any arrests in connection with the shooting, and are asking anyone with information to call the Boston Police Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470. People who want to leave anonymous tips can call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or text the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

Victims from separate Aug. 27 shootings identified

The victims of two separate shootings that took place on Saturday, Aug. 27 have been identified.

Stravensky Odige

Stravensky Odige

The first shooting happened on Westville Street in Dorchester around 1:40 a.m., and the second took place in Jamaica Plain on Centre Street outside a 7-Eleven at approximately 3:30 a.m.

Police identified the Dorchester shooting victim as 24-year-old Stravensky Odige of Boston. According to his obituary, Odige was originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He had three siblings.

The Jamaica Plain shooting victim is Jeffrey Kelly, 28, of Boston. Police told the Boston Globe that it appears the shooter targeted Kelly. He was shot several times while sitting in his wheelchair, WEBN reports. Residents told the Globe that Kelly was known to panhandle in the area, but was “never aggressive” and “always grateful for anything he was given.”

Both murders remain unsolved. Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. People who wish to leave anonymous tips can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

State supreme court upholds murder conviction

Just one day shy of the fifth anniversary of Derrick Barnes’ death, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld his killer’s conviction. The ruling came down Friday.

Derrick Barnes was 25 years old when he was shot and killed as he sat on a family member’s porch on Fayston Street in Dorchester on August 27, 2011. A jury convicted both Frankie Herndon and Frederick Henderson of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm for Barnes’ death. According to the Suffolk County DA’s office:

Evidence and testimony at trial established that Barnes, who once lived in Boston but had since moved out of town, was visiting family after Boston’s Caribbean Carnival. He was sitting on the porch of a family member’s home with several other people just after 7:00 p.m. when Herndon and Henderson approached from the sidewalk. Their conversation soon became a verbal altercation that ended when Henderson and Herndon pulled guns and opened fire. Barnes’ friends scattered; he was struck.

Henderson ran from the scene while Herndon calmly walked up to Barnes’ fallen body and fired again as the young man lay dying on the porch.  Barnes was pronounced dead of his injuries at Boston Medical Center.

Both Herndon and Henderson, now 32 years old, appealed their convictions. The Suffolk County DA’s office released the following details about Herndon’s appeal:

Herndon was identified by eyewitnesses who knew the defendants and whose accounts were corroborated by imagery from surveillance cameras near the scene. Among other arguments, Herndon claimed on appeal that the trial judge erred by using the state’s model jury instruction on eyewitness evidence rather than a version his attorney recommended. The high court rejected that argument and found that, although it had since updated that instruction, “The judge here did not abuse his discretion or otherwise err in declining to give the defendant’s requested eyewitness identification instruction and giving instead a version of the model … instruction.”

Henderson’s appeal remains pending.

Shooting kills 1, seriously injures bystander

Police have arrested a suspect in connection with a shooting that happened around midnight in Dorchester last Saturday that killed one man and left a woman seriously injured.

The shooting happened outside 6 Dudley Terrace on Aug. 20. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a man and woman suffering from gunshot wounds. Ailton Goncalves, 35, of Dorchester, was pronounced dead at the scene. The female victim, who the Boston Globe identified as 31-year-old Merly Miranda, was rushed to the hospital. Officials say she was shot twice in the back, and is paralyzed.

On Saturday morning, Aug. 27, police arrested Aaron Almeida, 22, of Hyde Park in Dorchester and charged him with murder and unlawful possession of a firearm.

At arraignment Monday, prosecutors additionally charged Almeida with armed assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault and battery for the injuries Miranda suffered. A judge ordered him held without bail.

At the time of the shooting, Goncalves was talking with a group of friends at the end of the street. Miranda, who has no connection to either Goncalves or Almeida, was reportedly coming out of of a nearby home to get cigarettes from her car, the Globe reports.

At the same time, according to the Suffolk County DA’s office, “Almeida can be seen on footage from nearby surveillance cameras making his way from Dudley Street onto Monadnock Street and then onto nearby Dudley Terrace.  About half or two-thirds of the way down Dudley Terrace, Galatis said, Almeida opened fire, hitting Goncalves and the female victim multiple times before running from the scene.”

The shooting itself was not captured on video, according to the Globe, and court records reportedly described the shooting as connected to gang activity.

Detectives arrested Almeida based on the surveillance video and “other evidence,” and found clothing “identical to that worn by the assailant and two firearms” when executing search warrants.

Almeida will next appear in court on Oct. 5.

Two killed overnight in separate shootings

Two people were killed and others wounded as the result of a spate of shootings overnight Friday into Saturday. Officials believe some of the shootings were connected to parties ahead of Boston’s Caribbean Festival.

The first fatal shooting happened Saturday around 1:40 a.m. in Dorchester. Officers responded to a call of a shooting at 58 Westville St. The male victim,  who police have not formally identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The second shooting happened in Jamaica Plain at 454 Centre St. near South Huntington Avenue outside a 7-Eleven convenience store around 3:30 a.m. Police found the victim, a man in his 30s, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the hospital.

The Centre Street shooting victim appeared to be targeted, according to The Boston Globe, and was not part of any of the parties where the other shootings occurred. According to residents in the area, the victim was a well-known panhandler in the area. One resident saw him Friday night and said he was smiling as usual, and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Witnesses to the Westville Street shooting reported hearing multiple gunshots. One woman came upon the scene shortly after the man was shot. She told the Globe:

She saw a woman who appeared to be in her 20s crying over the young man as he lay on his back, and several other people who stood watching.

Police performed CPR on the man, but stopped before the ambulance arrived, appearing to give up, she said.

“I looked death in the face,” the woman said. “That was kind of sad.”

Police have not made an arrest in either shooting. Anyone who has information is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. People who want to leave a tip anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texting ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).

Police identify suspects in March murder, ask for public’s help

Boston Police have identified three suspects they believe are connected to the March murder of Allex Bryant in Roxbury, and are asking for the public’s help in finding two of the three suspects.

Allex Bryant

Allex Bryant

Bryant was shot around 3 a.m. on March 21 outside 66 Humboldt Ave. in Roxbury. Officers found him dead in the passenger side of a car.

On Thursday, Aug. 25, members of a US Marshal Task Force arrested one suspect related to the case, Dartanyan Pledger, 24, in Atlanta. Pledger is from Dorchester. Officials will bring Pledger back to Boston and charge him with murder.

Pledger was arrested in July of 2015 and charged with armed robbery after he and another man allegedly robbed a person at gunpoint in Dedham, according to Wicked Local Dedham.

Police are still looking for two other suspects connected to Bryant’s murder, and are asking for the public’s help in finding them. Niccokowan Pledger-Grant, 26, of Quincy, is wanted for murder, and Lisa Lewis, 24, also of Quincy, is wanted as an accessory after the fact.

Niccokowan Pledger-Grant

Niccokowan Pledger-Grant

Lisa Lewis

Lisa Lewis

Anyone with information about Pledger-Grant or Lewis’s whereabouts, or other information about Bryant’s murder, is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-373-4470. People who wish to leave tips anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).