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Shooting near Kendall Square; car searched in Back Bay, MIT briefly locked down
By adamg on Sun, 09/13/2015 - 4:50pm
Scene in Back Bay. Photo by Paula Tennyson.
Cambridge Police report somebody was shot as the Caribbean parade wound down in Kendall Square this afternoon.
The victim, a 25-year-old woman from Roxbury, was shot in the leg but is expected to survive, police say.
The shooting at Portland and Main streets sparked a chase across the Charles, where Cambridge, MIT and Boston police stopped and searched a car at Mass. Ave. and Comm. Ave. in the Back Bay.
MIT initially warned students to flee if they could or stay inside and lock their doors -and be prepared to use "improvised weapons" if confronted by the shooter. However, MIT retracted that alert because the shooter was not actually on campus.
Cambridge Police released this account:
At approximately 4:24 p.m. on this date, there was a shooting incident that took place on Main Street and Portland Street in the vicinity of the 7-11 convenience store. At the time of the incident, there was a large group of people attending the Cambridge Carnival. When the nearby gunshot was heard, some people began to run. It was determined that a 25-year-old female, a Roxbury resident, had sustained a gunshot injury to her leg. The victim was transported to a Boston area hospital with what appears to be a non-life threatening injury. Because of the number of public safety personnel already in the vicinity due to the Carnival, the victim received immediate medical attention from Cambridge Fire Paramedics and the Cambridge Police began combing the area for the suspect.
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Comments
Traffic nightmare in Cambridge, even on Sunday
I went to Microcenter about noon, having to avoid Memorial Drive closure, then after, deal with Mass Ave closure in Central Square and all the traffic avoiding both places. Stop by the MIT flea market near Main Street and Kendall? Fagetaboutit. I exited Cambridge as fast as possible and was happier for it, happier more now after this news.
"Improvised weapons"? To an MIT student that could be pretty wide open! Rail gun, light saber, laser, taser, hot soldering iron, bike inner tube sling shot...
Mark, this isn't funny.
You know what's awful? A woman sitting on the ground sobbing her eyes out because there was a shooting. She couldn't find her friend. Two women stopped to comfort her. I saw little kids fearfully peering out from behind Postal Service mail drops. And then you spout off with your regular old car tirade, like violence is some kind of ha-ha funny joke.
Just stop and reflect for a moment.
Now
I'd never thought I'd agree with the class idiot, but "If attacked by shooter, use improvised weapons" in the context of MIT conjures up some hilarious mental images.
The human mind is remarkably complex. It can empathize and laugh at the same time. And it should.
Yes, it's a funny image.
I wandered into the scene a few minutes after the shooting, so I'm still a bit wound up.
Why improvised?
"but "If attacked by shooter, use improvised weapons" in the context of MIT conjures up some hilarious mental images. "
The Dalai Lama said, "If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."
Yes but
MIT doesn't let you have your gun on campus without registering it with them ahead of time and given the *ahem* stringent laws on the books in this state with regard to firearms possession, storage, and carry, many people who are transient students elect to not bring their firearms with them when coming to college here.
My guess is that many MITers could improvise a weapon...
much more effective and much less lethal than a gun - and enjoy the challenge of doing it under significant pressure.
As for college kids not bringing their firearms because of our "stringent laws", I hope that's exactly right.
Weapon used...
Weapon used was most likely a TI-85 or TI-86, very dangerous in the wrong hands, I vote we ban them I mean they even sound scary
who cares what the dalai lama
who cares what the dalai lama said about anything.
No the shooting wasn't funny
I certainly don't think it is. The official instructions afterwards were what struck me as unusual, as it did others.
Some people deal with bad
Some people deal with bad things with humor; it's an equally valid coping mechanism. Just because you don't know that doesn't make it illegitimate, and makes your comment as callous as (you thought) his was.
After What Happened To Sean Collier, MIT Takes This Seriously
improvised weapons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbSvvXecIw
M I T Alert: The Last Report Was In Error.
not on campus? where is the campus line??
... 'cause my office, and i work for MIT, is at the corner of portland and main streets.
Oops?
WHDH took great glee this morning reporting over and over about how MIT caused a panic on campus by reporting an active shooter. Because we all know MIT has a force-field which would have prevented the shooter from stepping over the basically imaginary line and actually being on campus, and therefore the kids were never in danger...
Ah Washington Elms...the gift
Ah Washington Elms...the gift that keeps on giving
I live two blocks from Washington Elms
And I've never had a problem that began there, that I know of. What exactly are you talking about?
Newtowne Court is closer. But
Newtowne Court is closer. But I guess we can't expect the people who point at the projects to actually know where they are...
Cambridge Carribean thing today
Starting at 12:30pm, down River to Central, left on Main to Kendall. Wicked exciting for the 30th time.... Really look forward to not being able to leave my house by car so that people who don't live in my neighborhood can march around half naked for a Sunday afternoon. And apparently shoot each other.
Heard more sirens than usual, from Central, between 4-5pm. Hearing them as I type.
Hope there aren't any victims, or blood. But it looks like there are. And I'm heartily sick of hosting this kind of crap where my family and I try to live. Sorry, but please get the fuck out of my neighborhood. Thank you.
Oh, and by the way...
Since I'm on the topic....
Take your cancer walks, and hunger walks, and suicide walks, and Bald Headed Saint walks out to Lexington, Or Concord. Or Wellesley. Or anyplace other than Memorial Drive. Please. Let's see how the fine burgers of the Western Suburbs like them in their own towns.
Emily Rooney channelling turned off now.
Uh, in case you haven't noticed ...
Memorial Drive is closed to traffic on Sundays and has been for more than thirty years.
Other cities and towns actually are choked with these events, too. Deal with it.
SwirlyGirl, always Certain, Seldom Correct!
Memorial Drive is closed from River to JFK west of Harvard every Sunday, Yep. But try the BU Bridge, or Mass Ave on any Marching Sunday through the entire summer--clotted with suburbanites wearing colorful tee shirts and good intentions.
C'mon down, Swirls, and try to get over the river during the next "Walk for _______". And remember to Deal with it!
Just a small detail there, but don't let it get in the way of your knee jerking away as usual.
And?
So?
You can always move if you don't like it - except, as noted, not much better elsewhere.
Sounds like you could use a map to avoid some places - I've rarely had trouble on those rare occasions when I need to drive into the city on summer weekends because I know the minor roads quite well. That's one of the benefits of cycling everywhere the rest of the time.
In some situations, if you think you need to get across the river, leave your car and bike/walk. I used to do that during the Head of the Charles when I lived in the Back Bay but had to get to Andover to go to work.
No more calls, folks... We have a winner!
Somehow I think we all knew that a shooting and thousands of half-naked people marching in Central and traffic at a standstill in 30% or Cambridge was all going to be reduced to a mere glimmer in the sunburst of moral superiority that is Swirly Girl's bicycling commute!
What does their "half-naked"
What does their "half-naked"-ness have to do with anything? So if they were fully clothed, you'd welcome them with open arms?
How long have you lived there?
Because the celebration has been going on for 23 years so unless your "family" consists of grown children and you've been there longer, you moved into the area knowing this happened once a year, as do the marches you're so scornful of. I lived in the North End - there was tuba led parade at 8 am outside my window every Sunday in the summer it seemed. Can't really complain since the tube led parade and the crowding and driving/parking problems that went along with them were older than me let alone my time in the North End. Get over it or move.
One question
Why the fuck do you still live in Cambridge if you hate it so much?
It seems like every post from you on UHub amounts to WAHHHH THOSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE IN MYYYYYY WAAYYYYY WAHHHHH! Seriously. Almost as if the only reason you stay is so you can bitch about it.
The events, parades, thons, walkfors have been going on for thirty years. Traffic has been a fact of life in Cambridge for the better part of the last century. It isn't going to change.
Adapt, migrate, or go extinct.
"Bald Headed Saint walks"
Love it! :-)
Albert Einstein on parades.
"That a group of men would enjoy marching down a road in neat little rows is quite enough to make me despise them."
It's like vanity writ large. And those Walk for Halitosis things are obnoxious spectacles foisted by corporate assholes. The CEO's are dumb and won't support dispersed things with wide area benefits. No, they gotta see huge minion runs that require a helicopter to properly photograph.
We got along well for a very long time without this preposterous bullshit.
Men in neat little rows?
That's about as inaccurate a description of a Caribbean parade as I can imagine.
Also, can you provide a source for the Einstein quote?
There was a ticker-tape parade in NYC to honor Einstein in 1921.
It's from a volume of his quotes and observations.
I had it in the 70s and thought it was pretty funny. There are revised versions, maybe Ideas and Opinions.
I don't imagine he ordered the Ticker Tape parade.
Here's a variation I just found that's also pretty funny.
While I agree that nothing
While I agree that nothing about the shooting is funny, "If attacked by shooter, use improvised weapons" is a bit odd. Something like "try to get away and immediately call 911" would seem like much more prudent advice.
What Should It Say? Let Yourself Be Killed?!!
Getting away or barricading in place was the preferred option — if that fails, do the best you can to defend yourself.
Only the ignorant would laugh at this; don't underestimate people who know the laws of physics far better that you do!
The "if attacked" part is the
The "if attacked" part is the key bit.
By that point if you can't run, fighting is a better option than cowering under a desk (crazy person already knows where you're hiding) waiting to be executed.
What time was this?
I was at the Cambridge carnival from about 3:30 to 4:30, including at the location mentioned here, and did not notice anything at all unusual. Certainly there was no interruption of the festivity or evacuation of any section of the street or sidewalks.
From Twitter
https://t.co/XDXWITepRC
how do I get that to show me a timestamp?
I don't see one anywhere on that page.
that video was posted at 5:30
that video was posted at 5:30, which was 40 minutes after the post to UHub, so... it probably won't give you any information.
Around 430, maybe a few
Around 430, maybe a few minutes earlier. I was listening to CPD on the scanner the whole time, yeah, there was a shooting and the suspect fled in a car before they arrived, but it didn't sounds all that serious of a scene. And then that alert from the aforementioned PD went out that didn't sound anything like what I heard on the radio.
Deja vu...?
Is it me or is there usually a good dose of violence of some sort around the Caribbean parade? Are gangs particularly involved or something? Kinda surprised there's still support for the event if so.
Every year in Boston
There is a Caribbean festival every year in Boston. They are often held at Franklin Park, which is safer for everyone not attending the festival. The Caribbean festival has often been the most violent of the three that have traditionally been held in the summer (Dominican, Puerto Rican and Caribbean). I think this year's Boston Caribbean festival was held at City Hall Plaza, instead of Franklin Park which is surprising, because of the danger to others who aren't actually attending the festival, but who might be in its vicinity. It's a mystery to me why they continue to get permits for this festival, because shootings and stabbings are so frequent at it.
No arrests, no violence at parade this year
Unless, of course, BPD and the Globe are lying.
Nope, the Boston parade took
Nope, the Boston parade took the same route it has for decades and nothing happened.
Nor just you. There was a
Nor just you. There was a shooting at the one in NY.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8eb86d247c95430fb992eafcbcd719f6/west-ind...
How many of these Caribbean parades are there?
How many of these Caribbean parades are there? Wasn't there jut a shooting at one (for the second year in a row) in August in Dorchester? Somebody has got to look into what is consistently attracting gunfire at these events.
To answer your factual questions
There are three: The J'Ouvert and regular parade on the same day in Boston and the Cambridge one a couple weeks later.
No, there wasn't a shooting at this year's Boston parades. There was a murder several hours before the earlier parade but nowhere near the parade route.
Adam sugarcoats it, in the interest of political correctness
anon 6:07 pm is correct. Four shot and one killed in relation to this year's Boston Caribbean Festival.
So
Police blotter for St. Patrick's day?
C'mon - be honest.
Haha typical....
St Pat blotter, i have and it full of suburbanites like yourself coming into the city and acting like fools.
And public drinking isn't the same as gun violence.
Suburbanites?
A lot of Medford is much more urban than a good chunk of Boston proper.
And I guess I fail to see what the relevance is. People often travel across city lines. How about we forbid those urbanites from going into Foxboro and Mansfield and acting like fools?
I realize this thread has derailed, but the tired argument of suburban vs. urban residents being the problem is so asinine.
Well, since you asked...
http://bpdnews.com/news/2014/3/16/st-patricks-day-parade-update
"...issued 293 citations for public drinking and made 5 arrests--2 for disorderly conduct and 3 for public drinking. One subject was placed in protective custody."
Dedham-1
Southie-1
Haverhill-1
Berkley-1
Gloucester-1
That's it. No felonies. Now, lest I be accused of cherry picking the mellow year, it's the first one that popped up in a search.
If parade goers were subject
If parade goers were subject to gunfire you can bet your ass it would be on TV - probably national news. The st pats day parade does not attract gangbangers who think nothing of strafing parade crowds with bullets in hopes one may hit their intended target. Dorchester day parade doesn't have shootings associated with it either.
Because that someone how
Because that someone how cancels out the statement he made that there were shootings at the parade we're all talking about?
Or were you trying to insinuate something?
That boston.com article is
That boston.com article is trying to force a connection. The Globe article ( https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/29/one-man-killed-and-four-wou... ) also tries to make a connection, but in the end fails because it turned out it was completely unrelated.
Where did they link it back
Where did they link it back to the festival? Just because they threw the festival in the title to lure out people like you doesn't mean it had anything to do with the parade, and in fact occurred several hours before, as Adam pointed out. They could have put "on August 29" and you wouldn't have even found it.
August 29th was also Saint
August 29th was also Saint Anthony's Feast, maybe it was related to that. Same day, same city, right? That's how it works, right?
Worcester has one too
This year it was on Sunday, August 30 (the day after Boston's)
But adam it was a shooting by
But adam it was a shooting by people who were at parties celebrating the event - the carribean fest in boston always has violence associated with it - ask the boston police and the gang units and other law and order folk who work the route.
Time to end these Caribbean "festivals"
I agree with anon 6:07 pm. These Caribbean festivals attract far too much violence. I love the Caribbean people and enjoy traveling to the islands but these festivals continuously bring out the wrong element. The time for Caribbean festivals has come and long gone. Tme to end them.
Time to End Hockey Games and St. Patrick's Day Parades
They attract far too much drinking and fighting.
Discuss.
Since you asked...
I'm all for ending St. Patricks Day parades. They are just an excuse for getting drunk and acting like an idiot. St. Patrick's Day is not celebrated like this in Ireland where it is a solemn religious holiday. I'd like to see them all go, the Caribbean parades, Columbus Day and the like. Italian-Americans claim Columbus as a hero, yet he was not accepted in his country in his time and sailed under the Spanish flag. Not to mention the made up Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that doesn't even EXIST in Mexico for the most part. For the record, I am an American of Italian descent. If all these ethnic parades were to go I would not miss them. America is a country of many cultures, but all these events and ethnic prides tend to emphasize our differences rather than our similarities. Just my opinion. I'm sure there are entire sociology books written on such subjects.
But how are you gonna end 'em?
You can shut down the parades, sure, those require permits. But now that it's a thing, you're not gonna shut down the tailgating, porch parties, and other informal celebrations and gatherings.
Not just a crime magnet in Boston
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8eb86d247c95430fb992eafcbcd719f6/west-ind...
Caribbean Festival in Houston
this weekend also had shootings. So, yes, there is a history of gun related violence at Caribbean festivals in various cities around the country.
Hmm ...
The St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago this year also had its share of violence:
Oh, yeah and five people were shot to death the weekend of the parade.
But Chicago's a known hellhole, right? What about New York, enjoying its second run of broken-window policing under Bill Bratton?
NYPD hunts three goons who attacked two teens during St. Patrick's Day brawl outside Midtown pub:
Then there's Cleveland: St. Patrick's Day beatings at Public Square in Cleveland caught on camera (video).
So, yes, there's a history of violence associated with St. Patrick's Day parades in various cities around the country.
Adam,
I specified GUN VIOLENCE; of course when you have huge parades like St. Patrick', and other large festivals notorious for partying, you'll get fights, etc. I'm specifically referring to gun related violence.
Yes, I'm aware ...
At some point, though, being beaten to a bloody pulp by a gang can leave somebody in just as bad shape as being shot, and I'm not sure that condoning violence that can leave somebody with permanent injuries is the way to go.
The St. Patrick's Day parade
The St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago is nowhere near Boystown... it's actually miles away. Nice try though! Also, it's Lakeview East, not Boystown -- the yuppies drove out the gay community over a decade ago. Stick to Boston and leave Chicago out of it.
? Not sure why you cant admit
? Not sure why you cant admit that the carribean fest has gun violence associated with it ? It's like saying no bank robbers ever came from Charlestown.
You can, but then you have to
You can, but then you have to bring up Irish, Italian, etc. as above. Fair and balanced...
This is about adams post
This is about adams post about a shooting during and at the carribean festival in cambridge. Hence the focus on carribean festival. If it was a story about the st pats day parade we would discuss the drunken disorderly homophobic history. Black mass the movie is coming out soon and surely the movie will address that issue. When was the last shooting / stabbing / beating at an Italian festival in boston? Or the dot day parade?
There are specific parades and specific neighborhoods where the chance of gun violence on a scale of 1-10 (10 being most likely to occur) is higher than 6. Carribean fest and the neighborhood it travels through is one of them.
I am from dorchester and constantly asking adam to report on stuff other than the shootings and violence that happens here because both size wise and population dot dwarfs all other neighborhoods in the city and there is so much good and neighborly stuff that goes on daily. But in my opinion carribean fest is over promoted and drains much needed resources in the community. I certainly dont think it should be cancelled just reigned in.
I would not take my family to the event because of safety concerns. Be honest how many responders here have even gone to one?
I went during my 20s, and...
Recall that there was a shooting one of the years I attended. You have a point about the volatile nature of the crowd, but whatever, it's a human condition and not indicative of the larger community. I won't stalk your prior postings, but I am guessing that you don't call for other violent parades, like the St. Patrick's Day, to be ended because of hooliganism.
Furthemore, I urge you to acknowledge that certain communities , darker skinned ones, tend to unfairly bear the brunt of an affiliation with violence when in reality this is a human condition. Our country (or mine if you're not American) is violent at f*ck..bombing people all over the world, yet it's African American and Hispanic communities that get tagged with this pathology. It's bullsh*t.
I won't stalk your prior postings?
You know the person posted with the default handle, right?
The reality is that the parade in Southie, which as you point out deals with the combination of crowds and alcohol, did try to reign things in after hitting a low point (there was a stabbing hours after the parade in Southie, which you better believe people pinned on the festivities just like the shootings last month got pinned on similar parades.) It does look like the people associated with the Caribbean festival are trying to do the same thing, and I wish them well, as it looks like a great time.
I wouldn't read too much into parades and skin tones, since it has been noted that, even in my post, that the ethnicities prone to skin cancer do get a bad rap when parades (or specifically people watching parades or deciding to do bad things in the vicinity of parades) go wild.