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Troubled Allston intersection turns deadly once more
By adamg on Sun, 02/28/2010 - 11:40am
One man has died, and another could yet die, from knife wounds in a fight at Harvard and Brighton avenues early this morning that left three other men with less serious injuries, Boston Police report.
The dead man was in his early 20s and was pronounced at Brigham and Women's Hospital, police say.
Mitchell Martinez, 23, of Allston, was arrested on various charges, including murder, following the 2:30 a.m. incident at the intersection, where another man was stabbed to death on Nov. 8. He'll presumably be arraigned tomorrow in Brighton District Court.
Innocent, etc..
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Comments
Conveniently the address of
Conveniently the address of the Kells! They need to shut that place down immediately - at least the tavern should attract an entirely different clientele.
No it's Riley's Roast Beef
Or whatever it's called these days.
Well...
The corner could have involved any one of a number of scenarios, but I'm guessing that they were just "ballparking" the locale for Twitter. Kells could easily be involved; the corners themselves have the store24, the takeout restaurant, the indy ice cream bar, and dog-stomping Blanchard's. The full story is going to have to come out to figure out what put those people on the corner...but if I had to guess, it's because they came out of the Kells.
I've wanted to stab people after eating at Redneck's/Riley's (now Cafe Mitti's, I think), but that's just because of the people behind the counter. And actually, Cafe Mitti's does some decent food these days.
No, I think we're likely looking at another "group X met group Y to argue over whose women were groped by whom" that became a fun stabbing. While the Kells is still there, they're going to up their security to avoid the licensing board...so the fights will just roam down the street far enough to "not be the Kells' problem" from the "don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" mentality.
i am fearing the day of the
i am fearing the day of the kells shut down (very soon).
at least now all the crazy douchebags are corralled in one place you know to avoid. do you think they're going to disappear once the kells is gone? yeah right. they're just going to spill out into all your favorite bars. have fun with that.
the fight was across the street from the common ground, which is not the address of the kells. this would not be the first (or second, or third...) time i've seen a fight break out in that spot. but it is the first time the car i was riding in was roped into the crime scene so we had to stay there watching it all until 6:30 in the goddamn morning.
Turban head?
That same saturday night as I was leaving the kells, I saw the kells staff picking on some pakistani or indian guy. The poor man didn't appear to speak any english and they were blurting out obscenities at him. One of the staff actually called him a turban head and to go back to his (Expletive) country.
Common Ground
Channel 5 reports it all springs from an argument outside that place.
No, from what I've heard from
No, from what I've heard from people who were IN the Common ground, the fight started up the street (Kells) and carried down the street to the Common Ground.
Taking it to personal?
Were you there AdamG? You obviously have something against the Common Ground. No one involved in that murder was anywhere near the Common Ground other than just walking by. Your undocumented comments on all these threads proporting the theory that the fight started in the Common Ground are not only unfounded but libelous.
Nothing against the Common Ground
I've been to the Common Ground twice in my life - had a fine time both times.
The reason I posted the Common Ground link is because people here were quick to blame the Kells. Perhaps my mistake in this thread was not linking to today's post, in which an assistant DA says the case has nothing to do with any bar.
defending adam-common ground connection
from wicked local allston
Martinez charged in Allston murder
By Meena Ramakrishnan
Allston / Brighton TAB
Posted Mar 01, 2010 @ 07:56 PM
Allston, Mass. —
Investigators believe that Martinez and Bevins were members of two separate groups that exchanged words with one another in the vicinity of Harvard and Brighton avenues near the Common Ground Bar and Grill at around 1:45 Sunday morning.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/police_and...
Headlining at Harper's Ferry
Just in case The Kells wants to blame this fight on a "hip-hop show" at Harper's that evening (like they did last time) here's the band that played the Ferry Saturday night:
http://www.umelt.com/
U-Melt: "Disciplined without lapsing into rigidity, U-Melt displays a finesse not typically found in a band that plays so freely and is as flat-out fun to experience. U-Melt’s music will enter your brain, please your psyche at its deepest emotional level and speak to the part of your existential soul that responds to music performed at its apex of perfection. "
Seriously this must be the whitest band in the universe. Good riddance to the Kells!
Kells
Unfortunately, the crowd from the Kells is merely moving down the street to Brighton Centre at Brighton Beer Garden's basement nightclub, outside of which 5 gunshots were fired on Friday night!
Source?
Just wondering - what is your source for this? I live right near the Brighton Beer Garden and don't remember hearing anything that night. I checked the BPD Blotter and the Wicked Local Police & Fire section, but didn't see a mention of a fight/gunshots from that night.
Gunshots in Brighton Centre
I live in Brighton Centre, a couple doors down from the Brighton Beer Garden. I was up, and heard the gunshots just before 3am. I don't know if they were resulting from a fight, or had anything to do with the Brighton Beer Garden (although the parking situation in brighton centre is a mess now on Thurs-Sat nights, and that happened exactly once that nightclub opened at Brighton Beer Garden). But I have no doubt they were gunshots, likely from a smaller caliber pistol, and they were in the direct vicinity of the Beer Garden.
Word
I did hear that myself. At the time I had attributed them to fireworks/firecrackers because there's quite a bit of that in my neighborhood (although not usually this time of year). I opened my blinds to see if there were any further pops in the air and didn't hear anything until I went to bed.
I was probably sound asleep
and just didn't hear anything. Though I have noticed it has gotten much rowdier in Brighton Center these past few months. Usually the sidewalk on Washington would be covered in puke in the warmer months, but it's definitely kicked up on a notch during the colder months. I've lived in the Allston/Brighton area for the past 10 years, and the violence and sheer amount of public drunkenness has gotten worse. Total bummer.
Update: One dies, one under arrest
I've updated the post with that news from BPD; which hasn't yet said what set off the fight.
why isn't there a constant
why isn't there a constant police presence in that intersection? They need one of those huts similar to downtown crossing.
The Kells needs to go NOW, and all these people need to stay out of allston! (Yes, i know this time the dude was from allston, but it appears most of these people are not usually from the area.)
No one else is going to say it either, but all these incidents are predominantly minority. Flame on!
Honkey on Honkey Violence
Please. I've been living in Allston from 1988-1992 and 1998-present. And the vast majority of violence in Allston in the form of street fights is white college students vs. white college students.
hey BlackKat what's a honkey?
im not sure what that word means? what do you call it when two african americans are committing violence?
Living right there and
Living right there and working/drinking at these bars I can say you are partially correct. The weekly fist fights, drunken brawls and throwing of furniture (aka drunken debauchery) are almost always white college kids getting out of hand, and for the most part this stays out of the blotter. The violent crime (stabbings and shootings) however, are usually people (of every ethnicity) from down the other end of the 66. I'm not saying this as a racist, but someone who worked at one of the prominent bars in the area for the better part of three years (not the Kells however, thank god).
Who cares?
A man was brutally murdered and all you can talk about is race?? The man who died was Spanish just so you know but even with that aside your comment just goes to show your ignorance and lack of respect for the families involved!
Every time I walk past
Every time I walk past rednecks (or whatever the hell it is these days) there IS a cruiser parked right in front, which really makes me wonder how all this keeps happening.
Location, time, effort
Because rowdy is as rowdy does and the location of this fight was in the opposite direction down Harvard from that corner (maybe even because the cop car was there that night).
I'm sure that the guy with the knife didn't swing it wildly above his head while running out of the Kells like a banshee before it all went down.
You can see the Common Ground
You can see the Common Ground and the Kells perfectly from that corner (actually a bus stop), however you are right that stabbings probably arent all that obvious until someone hits the ground bleeding.
I do feel that perhaps foot patrols should be assigned to walk up and down Harvard Ave between Comm and Cambridge St on Friday and Saturday nights. While I am hesitant of this because of possible police harassment of people minding their own business, perhaps a greater visual presence (ie: not sitting the their cruisers on cell phones) would deter some of this from happening in the first place.
Sure, the shingle
You can see the Common Ground *shingle* from there, but can you even tell me what the people in front of Rednecks are wearing in this BROAD DAYLIGHT image?
Hell, tell me how *many* people are curbside on Harvard next to Redneck's...
It's a bigger intersection than you think and the Common Ground is another half-block from the corner. If they ducked around between Tedeschi's and Common Ground...even *less* likely any cop got any kind of view. All while a few hundred drunk college (underage?) kids pour down the street back towards BU.
I know just how big that
I know just how big that intersection is, and I already proved your point saying that a stabbing is probably not the most obvious thing, especially as you said, at night. By the way the image of someone running around that corner screaming with a knife over their head made me burst out laughing.
Fair enough
I didn't mean to come off as accusatory in that last post. The all-caps were probably unnecessary. I just don't think anything short of a cop hanging out with the attacker while they were walking down the street just before the attack would have prevented this.
I happen to know this person
I happen to know this person that committed the crime. My family and I have known him our whole lives. He's been in some brawls in harvard ave. but never this severe. I'm so nervous to find out what actually happened and caused this whole thing.
Are most of these incidents caused by BU students?
or by students at other nearby colleges? I don't think many people other than students live around this intersection.
I think if BU students were
I think if BU students were out stabbing people, we'd read about it.
Boston residents love to complain about how college students ruin the city, but excluding the very rare prostitute killer, most college students avoid stabbing and shooting.
I think there are a lot of
I think there are a lot of non students around that intersection as well. The other major violent incident recently caused by an Allston resident near that intersection wasn't by a student (to my knowledge).
http://www.universalhub.com/node/27404
And the stabbings last Fall seemed to involve people who didn't live in the area at all.
a) the frequently linked stabbing in November
b) Multiple stabbing at the intersection in September: http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/police_and...
If you move a block up Harvard from that intersection, you can count the
c) stabbing at The Avenue http://www.universalhub.com/crime/20090912-two_sta...
d) the stabbing at Pizzeria Uno http://www.universalhub.com/crime/20090725-man_sta...
BlackKat claims above that the majority of street fights are between "white college students". Maybe that's true, but it doesn't seem to be of the extremely violent nature that results in people dying and it doesn't seem to involve knives or guns. Maybe college student violence created an environment where a more violent crowd felt comfortable.
The only incident I've found that sounds like it might be a college student is:
e) throwing of a bar stool at the Kells http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/police_and...
But as other people have mentioned, most of the articles in the newspapers seem to emphasize that this is an area full of college students, so they would probably be jumping all over it if a college student was actually responsible. (It wouldn't be 22 year old girl from Syracuse, NY, it would be 22 year old BU student)
just poking around
just poking around universalhub now, look at http://www.universalhub.com/crime/allston.html and see how many of those involve college students. Either the local media and BPDNews sweep all crime by college students under the rug or they're probably being disproportionately blamed for incidents in Allston.
They are. The majority of
They are.
The majority of violent offenses seem to be from dirt bag locals, or out of Towner’s looking for trouble.
For the the bitching of puke on the sidewalk, empties, or late night parties; you have to give it to the college crowd, this ain't them and it's much worse.
I lived in Allston years ago, and remember stories of bands of thugs spilling over from Dorchester into Brookline and Brighton on the weekends looking for weekend parties so they could beat up people to get street cred.
That intersection is close to some rather shady section 8 housing, Lower Allston, a building that looks like it should be condemned on corner of Cambridge and Linden yet is somehow occupied, ect. There’s a huge mix of people, from an local asian community, to the college kids.
You’d get the occasional fist fight with the college kids prancing around; but the recent swing of stabby stabby doesn’t seem to be them. Not to say it isn’t started by them; but it seems they’re not the ones with intentions of killing. My guess is someone’s honor gets offended from normal college aged shenanigans and it quickly is spiraling out of control.
Bingo. Lower Allston is the
Bingo.
Lower Allston is the other name of North Allston, although I know the building you mean on Linden. It, and the other two abandoned looking buildings on the dead end section of Harvard Ave are ex-office buildings now used as warehouse space for auto-parts.
Linden St itself is pretty damned sketchy, however the problems coming out of it are also not related to whats been happening at Brighton and Harvard.
No
While college students (it's not all BU kids going to these bars) do get into petty fights after swilling one too many crappy domestic beers, they are typically not the ones adding knives to the equation.
Sorry, Ron
Sorry, Ron, you're wrong - many people other than college students DO live around that intersection. The apartment buildings on Gardner between Linden and Harvard, and the ones on Harvard itself between Brighton Ave. and Cambridge St.? Definitely plenty of non-students living there.
allston "locals"
Another thing that people may not realize is that a lot of these people that appear to not be locals because they don't have boston addresses in the police blotters, often times grew up in Allston. I see a lot of names on this site from people who were arrested for violent crimes in Allston with Dorchester or Roxbury addresses. I recoginize a lot of these names as people who grew up in the Fidelis Way of Faniuel St. projects but ended up getting kicked out of the projects for various reasons. They are then forced to live elsewhere.
hey pete nice do you mean peanut?
also known as J.P.????
P
i believe is still in jail...
No, not specifically
But recently, 2 of the people arrested for these recent murders in other parts of boston were from Jette Court.
jette court has always beeen worse
fanueil st was safe for years but fidelis way/jette court has been more dangerous for as long as i can remember. i dont think the problems on harvard ave stem from either of these two places. i think the large club (the kells) draws a crowd from other parts of the city that dont have similar clubs. if i lived in dorchester or roxbury or southie and there was a large club within 5 miles that played the kind of music i liked, had free parking, and tons of college girls, i would go to that club too.
Its not just BU, there are a
Its not just BU, there are a LOT of BC kids coming off the hill as well, alongside a good portion of Harvard students and some from Northeastern as well. And as someone already said, it isnt all college kids living in Allston, however the non-collegians are usually lower income working immigrants from what I've seen, both of the highly visible asian variant as well as latinos (the latter concentrated between Farrington and Gardner, around that church). Neither of these groups however are causing any problems however, in fact the asian population is supporting a very nice and expanding group of restaurants in the area.
the asian population also
the asian population also rids our trash and recycling of all aluminum cans. I don't mind as long as it isn't at obscene hours.
Just don't forget to leave
Just don't forget to leave the empty keg on your porch.
I always got a kick seeing a sweet old Asian lady carting three empty kegs down the road in a shopping cart to Blanchards with a huge smile on her face on Sunday mornings.
allston rumbles
i grew up near that spot. back in the day( eighties-early nineties) it was generally students mixing it up with locals or students from BC throwing down with BU kids. there was almost always a fight but there were never any knives or guns involved. i have not lived there for a few years but i hear things. i hear that the kells has become something of a hip hip clup and it is drawing crowds that never hung out in this neighborhood before. i saw a lot of crazy things happen in this area but no one ever died. so long kells.
Pretty much the evolution of
Pretty much the evolution of the Kells I saw before I moved out of the area a few years ago.
But for the most part, the clientele behaves.
Still, it's local and underground DJ's and hip hop, and you will get some bad apples now and then because of the circles they run in and who you're advertising to come there. The Kells just isn't situated with Club like security [they only have a few bouncers], or a rational policy to keep fights from re-erupting when they kick out both parties [stupid, stupid, stupid] which is really the issue.
White horse is a even larger bar right down the road. No issues there. They actively refuse overly intoxicated people too, and strictly enforce id checks. It's a great sports bar.