JP Shooting Victims Were Innocent Bystanders Of Gang Violence: PD

JAMAICA PLAIN, MA — The 23-year-old about to graduate from college and a 58-year-old father of three were shot and killed outside a Jamaica Plain apartment complex Friday night were innocent bystanders in a gang-related shooting, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said after police arrested three on gun-related charges in the same area where the two were shot.

About 9:40 p.m. Friday night police officers heard what sounded like gun shots near the Jackson Square T stop. The officers raced to the sound of the gunfire and found Christopher Joyce and Clayborn Blair near the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments (formerly known as Bromley-Heath Housing Development) suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were taken to Boston Medical Center but both died.

"The two victims here had nothing to do with gangs," Evans said. No suspects have been arrested in the shootings, which were the 17th and 18th homicides for 2018 in Boston.

Then about 2:10 p.m. the following day officers assigned to the Youth Violence Strike Force arrested three people ranging in age from 17 to 34 in connection with gun possession at the Mildred C Hailey Apartments.

Police found a loaded .45 caliber handgun as they were investigating the shooting and arrested Aryana Wilson, 18, of Dorchester, charging her with unlawful possession of a gun, ammunition, carrying a loaded gun and driving without a licence.

When the officers attempted to arrest a second suspect, later identified as a 17-year-old from Brockton, he took off running through the old Bromley-Heath Housing Development.

Police had to call in back up and between Boston Police and Boston Housing Authority Police were able to place the juvenile in custody. But in the middle of that, officers also arrested Anthony Upchurch, 34, of Brockton, who physically assaulted two of the officers and actively interfered with them as they attempted to place the juvenile male in custody, according to police. Police charged him with two counts of assault and battery on a Police Officer and resisting arrest. The 17-year-old male will appear in Roxbury Juvenile Court where he will be charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and resisting arrest.

The Herald reported Joyce was visiting family at the complex who were congratulating him on his graduation. His mother plans to walk across the state at Salem State where he was studying accounting, the Herald reported.

Joyce graduated from Cristo Rey Boston High School in 2014 and was on Varsity Basketball team, according to his LinkedIn page. There he volunteered with the Agape Club for three years, to help people and places that were less fortunate. After graduating, he said he still volunteered with the group. He was currently interning in the criminal justice field, he wrote.

Previously on Patch:

Fatal Jamaica Plain Violence: Shooting Leaves 2 Dead

Salem State Student Shot, Killed Two Weeks Before Graduation

Photo of the former Bromley-Heath Housing Units by Maz for Patch