Three people with stab wounds charged with attacking each other in Mass and Cass melee, DA says

Three people stabbed outside the Southampton Street shelter were arraigned last week on charges they were the ones doing all the attacking, with knives, gun butts and a milk crate - according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, which reports police are still looking for a separate guy who walked into the shelter with a machete, as well as the owners of one of the two loaded guns police found.

According to the DA's office, the brawl started around 11:30 a.m. on July 15 and involved Jaden Mathieu, 20, of Dorchester, Juan Shanks, 33, of Dorchester and Mikia Steed, 38, of Roxbury - as well as a host of other people who have yet to be charged.

The DA's office reports Southampton Street shelter staff flagged down a couple of officers on patrol in the area to help them with two people stabbed in the back:

[Surveillance] video shows Shanks being approached by a man, later identified as Mathieu, who appears to be holding a firearm. Mathieu strikes Shanks in the head with the butt end of the firearm before losing control of the weapon and letting it fall to the ground. The firearm is picked up by another man in a purple T-shirt ... who appears to place it in his waistband. [That man] then walks under a canopy connected to a green tent on the corner of Atkinson and Southampton streets. Police later secured the tent and recovered two firearms. [That man] has not been charged.

Shanks and Mathieu are seen on video wrestling on the ground when an unknown suspect wearing a dark colored hoodie and red pants approaches Shanks and stabs him in the back. Shanks is then attacked by multiple people including Steed. Steed, who is wearing heavy footwear, proceeds to punch, kick, and hit Shanks with a milk crate. Shanks then gets up and chases Steed, stabbing her several times in the lower back.

Several security guards nearby attempt to intervene and stop the fight, while doing so, Shanks tosses an object that is later identified as a knife. Steed then walks into the lobby of the shelter and collapses next to the security checkpoint.

An unknown suspect wearing a green T-shirt and blue jean shorts approaches the scene wielding a machete, which was quickly confiscated by a security guard. This individual and the suspect wearing the dark colored hoodie and red pants have not yet been identified.

Shanks, Steed and Mathieu all sustained non-life threatening injuries. Investigators located a folding knife in Shanks’ pants pocket. Overall, police recovered a knife, a machete and two firearms loaded with live rounds.

All three were arraigned this past Wednesday in Roxbury Municipal Court.

Mathieu was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (gun), illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition, the DA's office reports. Judge David Poole ordered Mathieu, who already had an open firearm case in Roxbury court, ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing on Wednesday, the DA's office says.

Shanks was charged with armed assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (knife, according to the DA's office. Shanks, who has served time for illegal gun possession, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer, was also ordered held without bail, pending a probably cause hearing on Aug. 25.

Steed was charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot and milk crate). Judge Debra DelVecchio set bail at $2,500, the DA's office reports. Steed, who already has a warrant out of Suffolk Superior Court for a December, 2022 armed robbery while masked, is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on Aug.18.

In a statement, DA Kevin Hayden said:

Police and prosecutors continue to target serious offenders and we are seeking additional funding for our Services over Sentences program, which helps low-level offenders escape the area. But without a comprehensive approach a solution will never be adequately addressed.

Innocent, etc.