Latest Dorchester murder victim IDed as former gang member implicated in shooting death of 10-year-old girl

UPDATE: Arrest made.

Boston Police today identified the man gunned down at Dorchester Avenue and Roseland Street as Cordell McAfee, 22.

McAfee was the state's star witness in the first case against gang members for the shocking death of 10-year-old Trina Persad in 2002. At trial, McAfee, himself only 15 at the time of her death, testified he and other members of his gang went in search of some rival gang members to avenge a shooting attempt. McAfee testified that when they found them on a Roxbury basketball court, a member of his gang opened fire with a shotgun - hitting Trina instead.

McAfee could have been charged with murder himself but was allowed to plea guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for his testimony - which failed to help convict the man charged with being the driver (a second man in the car was convicted in 2009 of second-degree murder).

In 2007, McAfee, still an alleged gang member, was arrested on a gun possession charge but was freed when a Boston cop wasn't summoned for pre-trial hearings on his case.

A spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said investigators do not believe there is any connection between the Persad case and McAfee's murder.