Hey, there! Log in / Register
Running gun battle leaves boy, 7, shot
By adamg on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 8:02am
UPDATE: Second arrest made in case.
Globe: Boy, 7, caught in burst of bullets while playing outside in Roxbury, on Mission Hill. At least two men, possibly a third, also shot in the Mission Main incident last night.
Boston Police report the boy was caught in gunfire between some thugs. They say that after getting shot in the stomach by one thug on a bike on Tremont, a thug and his thug pal in a Honda started looking for the shooter. When they found him on Sewall Street, they opened fire, and the little kid got hit by a stray bullet, police say. Police say the two alleged Honda thugs then switched places and the injured guy was driven to Brigham and Womens even as an ambulance was taking the kid to Boston Medical Center.
Kenny Francois, 18, of Hyde Park and, police say, not the original Honda driver, was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm, although police say they have yet to recover the gun. The Suffolk County DA's office says Francois was not charged with last night's shooting. His bail was set at $2,500 today.
Police Commissioner Ed Davis said the guilty parties in the incident should be sent away for life:
The wanton disregard for the lives of children as a result of random gunfire is unconscionable.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Is that Roxbury?
Seems to me the location is more Mission Hill than Roxbury. It's on the Mission Hill side of Tremont Street.
The key thing is a kid was shot
But, in any case, yes, but isn't this one of those "Is Mission Hill part of Roxbury" things?
Oh yes, of course
It is horrific news. I didn't mean to understate that fact by my comment. And if it came across that way, I apologize.
Nothing to apologize for
I'm the one who should be apologizing for being a bit cranky this morning; these border issues just get wearying sometimes; it doesn't help that roughly half the reporters in this town seem unable to tell the difference between any neighborhoods (such as assuming that everything that happens on Hyde Park Avenue happens in Hyde Park).
It happens. More and more
It happens.
More and more journalists are only doing the work that will get them ahead, journalistic standards be damned. Turn on cable news and it's prevalent and apparent.
At least you hold yourself to higher standards Adam!
mission hill is in roxbury
mission hill is in roxbury but does that really matter. a sweet innocent lil boy got shot by stupid teenagers. i knew the 7 yr old personally cause he was in my daughters k2 class and on her lil league team. no one deserves that especially him
At what time was he out
At what time was he out playing kickball?
Not that you shouldn't be able to be out doing so at any time, but i'm wondering if this lines up with my theory that if your inside by 8pm, then the likelihood of getting shot in the hood goes way down.
Just before 7 p.m.
According to the story. Sorry, that's not too late for a 7-year-old on a summer night.
I agree, but it was a valid
I agree, but it was a valid question and thought.
The people below would do good to read what I wrote, and not just make a snarky comment.
Your hear a lot about someone shot on the corner of so and so at 2:34am almost every week. It unfortunate this child got hit, and in broad daylight to boot.
I remember...
...loving walks or ice creams, or hanging out "late" at night when I was a kid. 8, 9 pm or later.
It was fun.
Even if this little boy had been out later, it wouldn't have been okay, justified what happened, or anything. He was with a parent and other adults - he wasn't running around unsupervised.
You can't live inside just because you live in the city. You can't live with fear of being shot. With all the stray bullets that have gotten onto people's porches & into their homes, you'd have to extend your paranoia further.
Sun sets around 8:30 pm
and school's out for summer. No reason a kid should need to be indoors at that hour.
Ah yes ...
Anon will, of course, be the first person to complain about paying for the health consequences resulting from lack of exercise in urban kids who are kept inside, rather than sent out to run off their dinner.
"keep kids inside all the time" is not the answer to "streets are unsafe".
Sorry miss pretentious
Sorry miss pretentious SwirlyGrrl, but the observation was that 95% of these shooting seem to happen between 12am-4am. I don’t see where I made that argument you state, but just brought up the fact that you have a much better chance at not getting shot, if you don’t stay out late on a street corner, it seems.
And as I stated, kids shouldn’t have to stay inside. With that said, a good parent might think it wise to limit outdoor time after dark in neighborhoods where gang activity is prevalent. It’s not the country side, or a little slice of suburbia after all.
Last, the lack of supermarkets and access to real food in poor neighborhoods has more to do with obesity, then lack of exercise. Big Macs and KFC trump any exercise when your eating 4500 calories a day, but I’m sure you know that too.
That's Dr. Pretentious to You
Lack of exercise - due to kids kept in because of violence and because of asthma/pollution issues - is a big factor in urban child health. Boston doesn't have nearly the problems that places like Detroit, Baltimore, etc. do with working parents feeling they must tell their kids to go straight home and lock it down for several hours after school.
It is much easier and trendy to blame fast food (which isn't even all that accessible in the most difficult neighborhoods) than look at the entire problem of access to quality food (including grocery stores), exercise AND quality after-school care while parents finish their workday.
There is a whole system of journals that are open access - BioMed Central - where you can search and read about the more complex situation in the full context and even with global range if you like. Most articles are written by PhD level health researchers like myself, but the language used for community studies is usually pretty accessible.
and it also doesn't help
and it also doesn't help that schools are phasing out physical education, and retooling the P.E. that you actually did something in.
(the mile run was optional for this posters little sis, crazy!)
I agree though, as being healthy or being obese is not mutually exclusive. I'd say the lack of quality food leads to the later, while health issue are due to the former, but I concede on this point Dr. Pretentious!
;)
Fun with PE in a Boston elementary school
My daughter's school doesn't have a gym - it's a classic 1930s era Boston school.
When it re-opened before the current school year, downtown wouldn't let the school put in a playground, even though there was money for it, because the neighbors would object (it had been a school since, well, the 1930s, then it closed, then kidlet's school took it over so it could go K-8). They were afraid people would come from all over to their obscure little nothingness of a neighborhood where nobody ever goes and make noise at all hours of the night. So instead we were promised the kids would get to make regular trips to the park two blocks away, which has a great playground. Hah! That's now considered "a field trip" and only the upper graders get to go - all of three or four times a year.
No Gyms, No Cafeterias
What the heck was going on around here in the 1910s to 1930s?
I went to schools that had nearly the exact same floor plans as those Medford scrapped and Arlington rebuilt, but they had gyms and cafeterias - even in low income, rural communities.
From talking with others who had similar schools in other parts of the country, it seems they must have cut the gyms and cafs out of the plans around here? Why? Screw the poor?
a few reasons
people went home for lunch to save money rather than spending money in school, and to save money heating a big cafeteria.
or the kids ate in the classrooms - in one school I went to without a cafe - we'd have a milk delivery every afternoon, and a milk lady would take our order every friday for the upcoming week.
the kids would have gym outside in the school year. I remember playing dodge ball, relay races, playground games during gym.
Things are still the same
What you've described sounds like my kids' school, though they do have a cafeteria. They are outside everyday except in extreme weather, and have "gym" twice a week, with a fairly high activity program. A physical facility is not required, though I certainly think it's a nice idea.
Ayup!
It's amazing what sort of weather they'll send the kids out in - in the winter, kids are required to bring in a hat (a hood won't do) and gloves.
No mysterious plot or Yankee tightfistedness
Unlike other parts of the country, the Boston area has a lot of really old schools, especially at the elementary level. And it's generally a lot more densely populated than much of the rest of the country.
Back in the 1930s, few kids around here rode buses to school. They walked to school and walked home for lunch. So no need for cafeterias. And presumably they got their exercise on the way to and from school - or out on the playground (which, of course, got paved over in the 50s for a parking lot, then partially torn up in the 90s for a small bit of playground equipment). That would explain why my neighborhood has two small elementary schools within walking distance of each other (technically, three, but a mile uphill both ways, and yes, it really is, is a bit of a stretch).
Neighborhood of Curmudgeons
There is nothing more odious than the sound of children playing.
Smithers! Release the hounds!
if you say 95% of shootings happen between 12 - 4am...
..what's up with the theory of keeping kids in by 8pm to prevent their getting shot?
Just something that I came
Just something that I came up with when I noticed most shooting happen between those hours, so I just deducted that if you want to be completely safe, just don't be outside walking around in those areas at those times and your chances of of getting shot will drop considerably.
I don't have any evidence that shootings wouldn't move to meet other time demands in the absence of people walking around between 12-4am
Like I said, an observation and a comment, no science behind it
:)
in that neighborhood...
...I know of a supermarket, a subway, a couple dunkin' donuts...but no KFC or Mc Donald's.
What does the kid's calorie intake have to do with that he's 7 years old, and was shot while playing kickball in his neighborhood early in the evening during summer vacation??
Missed the change of
Missed the change of subject, huh?
One arrest made
BPDNews report: