This is the scene I witnessed yesterday morning when I was walking to work... Granted, when I woke up at 6:30am at my house (just a block down) I heard helicopters and lots of sirens... I knew something was going on. I checked the news and nothing. A couple minutes later: "BREAKING NEWS" on Fox25. Two people have been shot at 470 Mass Ave. Um, hello - that's like a couple doors down - WHAT THE FUCK? I go on about my day.
As I'm leaving the house they have Mass Ave Northbound blocked off at Tremont so I cross the street to get to the train. I see about 6 News trucks and about 50 people blocking the sidewalk. I slam into a couple reporters trying to get them out of the way so I can go to work and realize that there is an abnormally high number of folks still on the sidewalk. It's been 2 hours folks move it along.
Then I look across the street at 470 only to see the dead body lying on the front steps of the brownstone. HELLO! Good Morning Mass Ave! I actually
laughed out loud because I was sooooo not expecting to see that! I thought it was inside the building not right there on the front steps - don't know why... just did.
What's up with my neighborhood lately? I know that Boston's crime rate is rising and that the murder tally is higher than ever but this makes two shootings since last summer. Not pleased. To read about last summers
Shoot Out at the O-Gay Corral - click here. I was however very pleased to later discover that this shooting, you know... the one with the man lying dead on the steps as I went to work was an act of domestic disturbance. An attempted murder-suicide of someone they know. I know its still bad, but that makes me much happier than thinking its some random shootout! Read on below...
On steps of brownstone, a grim scene of violence
Man shot girlfriend, then killed himself, police sayBy John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | March 21, 2006
Gunfire rattled residents of a South End street early yesterday when a man shot his estranged girlfriend in the head as she left her building and then turned the gun on himself, police and witnesses said.
The man, whose name was also withheld, died, collapsing on the front steps of the Massachusetts Avenue brownstone where his body lay underneath a yellow tarp for about three hours until police and the medical examiner's office removed him. Police recovered a large revolver at the man's feet.
The scene disrupted traffic and startled passing pedestrians, commuters, and residents.
''It was really sad to see it," longtime neighbor David Pimenta said of the shooting and the aftermath, with the man's body remaining on the steps of the residence. ''This is my home."
Neighbors and residents said that the wounded woman lived in a second-floor unit at 470 Massachusetts Ave. and that she had changed the locks on her door last December, fearing a man known as Ronnie would return.
''I heard like two tires busting," resident Walter Jones said yesterday as he stood outside the building where the woman lives. ''I was trying to get out the door, and I saw a guy lying there and a woman; she was getting help" from authorities.
Dwayne Dunkley, a barber at A1 Barber around the corner on Tremont Street, said he knew the couple from the neighborhood and had last seen them about a week ago at the Massachusetts Avenue Silver Line stop.
''It seemed like they were getting back together . . . He was all bubbly, talking," said Dunkley, who added that the couple had started dating about eight months ago. ''She didn't seem too enthusiastic . . . She didn't seem to be into it."
Raymond Abraham, who lives above the woman's apartment, said that the woman feared the man he knew as Ronnie. ''She didn't want him to come here," he said. ''She changed the locks on her door so he couldn't come back around here."
In October, police removed a verbally abusive man named Ronald from the woman's apartment at her request, but no restraining order was sought in Boston Municipal Court, records show.
In a statement yesterday, police said that the investigation into the shooting was ongoing, but that ''there are indications that this is likely a domestic violence incident between two people."
The shooting occurred in a block of brownstones with a mix of condominiums and apartments between Columbus Avenue and Tremont Street.
Several residents described the building as a rooming house, where individuals rent rooms and share bathrooms. According to the city Licensing Board, the building is not licensed to operate as a rooming house.
Board chairman Daniel Pokaski said the board may order an investigation of the premises. If questions emerge, he said, ''we will have the owner in and find out what's going on."
A woman at the property who identified herself as the building owner but would not give her name, declined comment yesterday. Assessing records list the owner as Louise Lillian Martin.
Pimenta, who has lived across the street from the shooting scene for 17 years, said that the owner died last year and that her daughter has continued to manage the property. He said the building has a large amount of traffic, but has not caused problems for neighbors.
After the shooting, police closed the northbound lane of Massachusetts Avenue between Columbus Avenue and Tremont Street as they processed the scene. School buses, pedestrians, and dozens of commuters drove past as the body lay on the steps.
Police and the medical examiners office removed the body about 9:30 a.m., stationing MBTA buses on Massachusetts Avenue to shield their actions from news cameras across the street.
Because of the shooting, a community group, the United South End Settlements, planned to hold a meeting last night with police at the nearby Harriet Tubman House.
John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
