The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office will not seek charges against the Boston Police officer and FBI agent who fatally shot a Boston man in Roslindale in June of 2015.
Usaamah Rahim
Law enforcement officials confronted Usaamah Rahim at a bus stop near the CVS on Washington Street. He had been under surveillance after investigators learned he was reportedly plotting, with two other people, to behead someone in New York City. Rahim reportedly had ties to members of ISIS. On the morning of June 2, 2015, when officials approached Rahim, he reportedly brandished a large, military-style knife and walked towards the agents with it. The knife was visible on the ground at the crime scene.
In a statement, Rahim’s family expressed appreciation for the investigation but said they wished the investigation had a wider scope.
“From the beginning, we have raised a set of broader concerns that appear to be beyond the scope of the DA’s investigation. Specifically, we have asserted that Usaamah was the subject of an illegal arrest,” the statement read, according to Wicked Local Brookline.
Click below to continue reading for Suffolk County DA Dan Conley’s full remarks.
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The suspect in a stabbing that killed an East Boston man was ordered held without bail at his arraignment on Monday.
Darius Barry, 18, of Dorchester, was arrested and charged with murder for the early morning stabbing on Aug. 17 that killed 23-year-old Gage Smith of East Boston.
Gage Smith
Shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, investigators say Barry was inside a car with other people that pulled up outside 217 Paris St. in East Boston, and Barry and the others in the car got in a verbal fight with Smith. Some people in the vehicle got out and got into a street fight with Smith. Barry allegedly stabbed Smith multiple times, then fled the scene.
Emergency responders took Gage to Mass. General Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Gage was married and had a daughter, according to his obituary.
Police arrested Barry on Friday night and he was arraigned Monday. His next court appearance is Sept. 26.
The victim of Friday night’s shooting in Dorchester has been identified as Carlos Fortes Neves-Silva, 34, of Brockton.
Shortly before 11:40 p.m. on August 12, Neves-Silva was shot multiple times. Police responded to 21 Algonquin St. in Dorchester, where they pronounced him dead at the scene. 
According to The Brockton Enterprise, Neves-Silva was shot outside on the street while he was with a friend, but further details about the circumstances of the shooting remain unclear.
Neves-Silva’s wife Esmenia spoke to The Enterprise about her husband, who she said was known to friends and family as “Kay.”
“Everybody knew Kay,” his wife told The Enterprise. “He was very, very friendly — he loved being happy. He was a loving person, loving husband, loving father and loving friend. This is unbelievable.”
Neves-Silva was born in Cape Verde and had three children, 12-year-old Stella, 9-year-old Bruno, and 2-month-old Makayla.
Police have not arrested anyone in connection with the shooting, and ask anyone with information to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tips can be left by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or texting ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).
The Massachusetts Appeals Court declined to order a new trial for Trevor “Specialist” Higgins, who was convicted of second-degree murder for the 2009 shooting death of 32-year-old Carl Bonnie.
A jury convicted Higgins, now 42, of murder in 2013. Another man, Gregory “Buddha” Knight pleaded guilty to manslaughter before the trial began and is serving a nine-year prison sentence for his role in Bonnie’s murder.
Before his murder on Nov. 12, 2009, Bonnie had been texting with Knight and met up with him at an apartment on Clifford Street in Roxbury for a drug deal. Higgins was also at the apartment in the moments leading up to the shooting, and was armed with a shotgun, prosecutors proved at trial. Bonnie was shot and killed shortly after arriving at the apartment; after the murder, both Knight and Higgins fled to Maine.
According to the Suffolk County DA’s office:
Among other claims, Higgins argued on appeal that Knight’s sister and step-mother should not have been permitted to identify Higgins during their testimony at Higgins’ trial. The Appeals Court, however, ruled that the identifications were made in accordance with the procedures in place at the time of the trial.
He also argued testimony by the two witnesses recalling conversations with Knight should not have been allowed by the trial judge. The court found that the judge properly admitted the majority of the statements; the one statement that was erroneously admitted, however, did not present the likelihood of a miscarriage of justice in light of the full evidence presented against Higgins, which the court called “overwhelming.”
The court also found no error in the testimony of two additional civilian witnesses identifying Higgins and Knight in surveillance images, and that Higgins was not prejudiced by statements made in a prosecutor’s closing arguments.
A third suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of Raekwon Brown, the 17-year-old killed last month outside his high school in Dorchester.
Members of the Boston Police’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit and US Marshals arrested 20-year-old Jaden Waiters of Boston on Monday and he was arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court on Tuesday.
Raekwon Brown
Brown and three others were shot June 8 outside the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester around 1:30 p.m. Brown was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other teens were taken to the hospital to be treated for their injuries and a woman in her 60s was treated at the scene for her injury.
Waiters is charged with one count of murder and two counts of armed assault with intent to murder, the same charges that the other two suspects in the case are facing. Those suspects, 23-year-old Jonathan Aguasvivas of Roxbury, and 24-year-old Benzy Bain of Mattapan, were arrested and charged last month. Waiters was ordered held without bail at Tuesday’s arraignment.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office:
The investigation that followed, which entailed the retrieval and analysis of video footage from cameras in the area as well as other forms of evidence, led to the arrests of Aguasvivas and Bain on June 22. Both men were arraigned the same day and held without bail. Additional evidence gathered since that time led to Waiters’ identification as the third participant in Brown’s homicide and the nonfatal shootings.
Investigators continue to gather evidence in building their case and ask anyone with information to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470, or call the anonymous CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS. Anonymous tips can also be texted to CRIME (27463).
The person who was fatally shot in Dorchester around 11:30 a.m. on July 7 has been identified.
Two people were shot near 68 Hancock St. A woman in her 50s was shot in the leg and treated at the hospital for her injuries. Brandon Smith, 28, of Dorchester, was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting.
Brandon Smith
According to the Boston Globe:
A witness said Smith had been riding his bicycle, when the shooter approached him and said, “I’ma go to prison because of you.”
“I swear to God I didn’t do it,” the witness recalled Smith saying, before he was shot and fell from his bike.
No one has been arrested yet in connection with the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470, or call the anonymous CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS. Anonymous texts can also be made by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).
The person accused of murdering 18-year-old Blanca Lainez, the teenager found dead in an East Boston garage last month, was ordered held without bail at his arraignment on Monday. Jose Hernandez, 16, of East Boston, is charged with murder.
Lainez was found dead on the morning of June 15, just two weeks before her 19th birthday on June 30. According to the Boston Globe, Lainez was living in Chelsea and immigrated to the area from El Salvador in 2014. She was the youngest of 16 siblings, and some of her other sisters who were living in the area paid $7,000 to bring Lainez to Boston. She was in the area illegally.
Blanca Lainez
“If I knew this was going to happen, I would have sent her home to our mom,” Dora Merino, one of Lainez’s sisters told the Globe.
The Globe spoke to one of Lainez’s friends who last saw her alive on June 14.
Lainez suffered blunt force trauma and stab wounds, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. Construction workers found her body in the garage behind 54 Princeton St.
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Police have identified the man killed in Mattapan on June 24 as 43-year-old Jermaine Good of Boston.
Good was shot at around 3:20 p.m. around 17 Doone Ave. Police responded to the scene, where Good, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, was pronounced dead. Witnesses told the Boston Herald they heard between three and five shots.
Good, who some friends called Jamie, had two children, according to his obituary.
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. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or text ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).
Two men have been arrested and charged with the murder of 17-year-old Raekwon Brown. Brown was shot and killed outside the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester on June 8.
Jonathan Aguasvivas, 23, of Roxbury, and Benzy Bain, 24, of Mattapan, were arraigned in court Wednesday and ordered held without bail. A prosecutor did not give a possible motive for the shooting at arraignment.
Raekwon Brown
In a joint statement, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said more charges could be forthcoming against the men as the investigation unfolds.
Both Aguasvivas and Bain have served time in prison on firearms charges, according to the Boston Globe. In March, 2015, Aguasvivas was reportedly a passenger in the car driven by Angelo West, who, after being pulled over, then shot Boston Police Officer John Moynihan in the face. Police shot and killed West. Aguasvivas was not charged.
Attorneys for both suspects deny that their clients had any involvement with the shooting.
The man shot and killed Saturday in Mattapan was related to two victims of the quadruple homicide that shook the city in 2010.
Andrew Flonory was one of two people shot outside 62 Astoria St. just after 11 p.m. Saturday night. The injured victim was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to be treated, but emergency responders pronounced Flonory dead at the scene.
Andrew Flonory
Flonory, a father of five, was also the brother of Eyanna Flonory, 21, who was killed during the Mattapan massacre in 2010, along with her 2-year-old son Amani and two others. One man survived the shooting but was left paralyzed.
“Everybody’s hurting. We went through it with my sister and nephew, now I’m dealing with it with my brothers. It’s hard,” Andrew’s sister Ebony Flonory told FOX 25.
No arrests have been made in connection with Andrew Flonory’s murder. Anyone with information is asked to call Boston Police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. People who do not wish to identify themselves can leave anonymous tips on the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting the word TIP to CRIME (27463).
