A Dorchester District Court judge set bail today at $50,000 for the son of a minister whose gun went off Sunday, shooting his girlfriend in the head [2].
Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Dana Pierce said the woman remains in critical condition but that doctors are now expressing some hope she will live.
Gasps and crying from Jeremy Harrison's family filled the courtroom as Judge James Coffey's bail amount was read. Harrison's lawyer asked for bail of just $1,000. Also in the courtroom to show support, his lawyer said, were members of the victim's family, including her brother, and the mother of his four-year-old son.
Harrison, a city street worker and Bunker Hill Community College student whose father is active in anti-gang work, was not charged with the shooting, but instead with for the charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device and improper storage of a firearm with a minor present - the woman's three-year-old daughter.
Harrison's attorney, Jessica Dembro, said her client was "absolutely devastated" by what she said was a completely accidental shooting as Harrison was getting ready to go out for the day shortly after 10 a.m.
She said $1,000 was all Harrison could afford for bail and that his family ties in Dorchester and his clean record mean he would show up at his next court date on Feb. 15.
Pierce, who asked for $100,000 bail, said police were continuing to investigate how the woman wound up shot, but said that even if it were completely accidental, it is still troubling that a street worker, whose job is to turn kids away from violence, was getting ready to go out with a loaded, unlicensed gun.
As they left the courtroom, family members and friends waved to Harrison, clad in a white jumpsuit.
Innocent, etc.