Teen Charged In Shooting In Downtown Crossing

BOSTON, MA—A 16-year-old was charged with shooting another young man in the chest during a rush hour confrontation near Downtown Crossing earlier this month.

Police nabbed the teen yesterday at the Boston Juvenile Court, where he was scheduled to appear on an unrelated case, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley and Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans said.

He was then arraigned on one count of delinquency, to wit: assault with intent to murder for the May 2 shooting and held on $250,000 bail.

The teen allegedly shot a 17-year-old in the chest from three to five feet away shortly before 5 p.m. that day near Washington Street. The teen he shot survived and told police he did not know and could not identify the person who shot him.

Other witnesses in the area described the gunman as wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt. They described a scene in which this gunman found the other teen between Winter Street and Temple Place, pulled out a handgun and fired it, striking the 17 year old, who cried out and ran away before collapsing on Temple Place. At least one witness called 911.

“Witnesses described a chilling scene in which someone could easily have been killed,” DA Conley said. “The gunman fired without any apparent provocation in a busy area crowded with people. What possible motive could explain that conduct, much less justify it?”

Detectives got footage from public safety cameras at the Downtown Crossing MBTA station and private surveillance footage from businesses in the area. Pieced together it appeared to show what witnesses had told police. In the footage the gunman wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt reaches into his pocket, extending his arm, and pointing it directly toward the victim. At this point in the footage, people in the area scatter.

The video shows the gunman running into the subway station, jumping the turnstiles, and boarding an Orange Line car. The surveillance video suggests that he got off the train fairly quickly, walked up Tremont Street to Stuart Street, and left the area in a taxi.

Officers familiar with the teen identified him in this footage.

Investigators learned that the gunman was wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor that placed him in the area of the shooting at the time it happened. It also showed him moving from Tremont to Stuart streets as the gunman is seen doing in the video footage.

Based on the evidence developed in the course of their investigation, Boston Police detectives requested a warrant for the teen's arrest.

But the clerk’s office of the Boston Juvenile Court denied that request and issued the complaint on which he was arraigned when he appeared on his unrelated case Wednesday.

“I want to thank my responding officers and detectives for the hard work and dedication to justice that led to the arrest of the suspect in this case,” Evans said. “The fact that the suspect was in custody approximately two weeks after the original call is a credit to my detectives, their professionalism and ongoing commitment to protecting and serving the citizens of Boston. As I’ve said many times before, an incident like this certainly underscores the fact that there are way too many guns out there and they’re way too easy to get. But, those who cause or create gun violence in our city should know there’s never an excuse for using a gun to hurt or harm another and the suspect in this case, a 16-year-old juvenile, will likely be regretting his decision to do so for many years to come.”

The teen is slated to return to court on May 31.

Previously:

Shooting Near Boston Common: Police

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File Photo By Jenna Fisher/Patch