South End

Stanley Staco reports it happened around 9:10 p.m. at Washington and East Newton streets.

UPDATE, Friday morning: The MBTA reports the driver was spit on, not pummeled, that one man was caught and that he will be summonsed into court.

Citizens Connect has several reports of tree damage from last night's storm, including this tree on wires on Ansonia Road in West Roxbury and this snapped tree on wires off Clarendon Street in the South End.

Doggie in the window

Brian Fluharty spotted this UPS guy helping out a dog stuck on a window ledge in the South End today (on Springfield).

The Daily Free Press reports a move by Boston Medical Center to ban smoking on its campus means growing problems in surrounding blocks with smokers and their detritus:

"[Smokers] stand there and smoke there and throw their butts on the ground," Stergios said. "BMC is in sort of a bind. There are [community] members who have photographed people throwing their butts out there. You can see piles of butts."

Fire scene at Dartmouth and Columbus. Photo by Antigone in Boston.

Fire officials are still investigating the cause of a one-alarm fire at 333 Columbus Ave. last night that caused an estimated $30,000 in damage to an apartment whose tenant was in the process of moving out.

The fire, called in at 7:14 p.m., started in the kitchen in the fifth-floor apartment, Boston Fire spokesman Steve MacDonald said. There were no injuries.

BosGuy reports the South End Buttery Market on Shawmut opened today in the old Hudson Furniture space.

The Herald reports a link between the man fatally shot by police in the South End on Tuesday and a man taken into custody only after a violent struggle in Dorchester on Saturday - the Cadillac both men were driving before being stopped by police.

WBZ identifies the man shot to death after a foot chase in the South End as Burrell Ramsey and says he was apparently at the quadruple shooting scene in Roslindale on Aug. 12 where a man was shot to death.

Stanley Staco reports a chase in the area of Dartmouth Street on the South End side of Back Bay station ended with two police officers injured - and the man they were chasing shot dead, shortly before 6 p.m.

The Herald reports the chase started with a traffic stop and that the man pulled a gun on pursuing officers on Yarmouth Place.

Peter Howe at NECN reports police say the man was shot once in the chest after he brandished a gun.

Remains of the deck. Photo by BFD.

The Boston Fire Department reports a propane grill sparked a fire around 8 p.m. at 20 Wellington St. that did an estimated $500,000 in damage.

The fire, which started on a third-floor deck, damaged at least nine apartments - and the roof of a neighboring building.

Yesterday evening, firefighters battled a propane-grill fire in Roslindale that left 18 people homeless and sent one firefighter to the hospital.

Portable propane grills are illegal on upper floors.

Fire photo.

BosGuy reports that Trattoria Cinquecento, the Aquitaine Group's first effort at cucina italiana, should be opening soon in the South End space once occupied by Rocca.

Meanwhile, Grub Street Boston alerts us that celibrichef Todd English has posted a Craigslist ad looking for a chef to work for him on "a profitable restaurant" in the Boston area.

A vigilant citizen reports that that is, indeed, a giant pile of trash outside 581 Mass. Ave. this morning.

BosGuy dishes on the progress of construction in the South End's newest restaurant, which could open up in the old Pho Republique space next month.

The Boston Business Journal reports the chain has signed a lease for the development going in where the Herald used to be.

Jason Schwartz says:

The South End getting a Whole Foods is sort of like its own version of achieving manifest destiny.

Boston Police report officers found three men in a car shot shortly after 2 a.m. at Shawmut Avenue and Herald Street. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, the third was taken to Tufts Medical Center and is expected to survive.

Police say witnesses saw gunfire coming from a gray "SUV style motor vehicle" with Rhode Island plates.

WCVB reports police are looking for both the drive-by shooter and two people in the death car who fled.

The Otherside Cafe, which shut at the end of April, is negotiating a lease on space in the South End, its manager told the Boston Licensing Board this morning. But whether it re-opens as a vegetarian restaurant and beer bar remains an open question.

Daniel Lanigan told the board he hopes to have a lease in place within four to six weeks; he asked the board to give the Otherside up to six months to complete negotiations and then renovate the space into a new restaurant. Technically, the board does not allow holders of increasingly valuable liquor licenses to just sit on them, but in practical terms, it typically gives existing license holders time - in some cases two or more years - to reopen, move to a new location or find a buyer.

After the hearing, Lanigan declined to say exactly where in the South End the new location is, because of the lease negotiations. He added that exactly what the new restaurant would serve up would depend in part on talks with nearby residents on just what they'd like to see in the space.

The Otherside closed after 20 years on "the other side" of Newbury Street when its landlord declined to extend its lease.

BosGuy reports Posh, the high-end gift shop on Tremont Street, is being replaced by a bank.

Stanley Staco livetweeted the BPD radio call.

After attending and publicly praising a large, "peaceful loving" block party, state Rep. Carlos Henriquez of Dorchester was arrested on charges he attacked a woman in his car by Northeastern and wouldn't let her out.

The Dorchester Reporter reports the alleged incident happened on Forsyth Street around 4:30 a.m. Henriquez, who is active on social media, may have tried to tweet from the scene; his Twitter feed shows what appears to be an attempted tweet - only a period - at 4:37 a.m.

He faces arraignment Monday in Roxbury District Court on two counts of domestic assault and battery and charges of kidnapping, intimidation of a witness, and larceny from a person.

This is Henriquez's second car-related run-in with Boston Police. Last year, he had a confrontation (scroll down on that page) with officers during a traffic stop in which he was a passenger.

Henriquez, first elected in 2010 to represent parts of Dorchester and Roxbury, will likely face perennial also-ran Althea Garrison in this year's fall election.

Henriquez's last tweet; all he got out was a period.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Police are investigating a stabbing around 4:30 p.m. at 116 Northampton St. that sent one teen to nearby Boston Medical Center. At least one suspect was quickly apprehended, but police are looking for other possible suspects.

Boston Police have their stop-sign runners and speeders and MBTA Transit Police have their fare piggybackers. A man stopped for allegedly evading the fare at the Mass. Ave. Orange Line stop yesterday afternoon proved to have warrants for more serious offenses, police say.

According to a police report, plainclothes officers watched William Brady, 37, of Chelsea, following a fare-paying man through a fare gate at Mass. Ave. around 1:20 p.m.

That's normally good for just a ticket, but a check showed Brady had outstanding warrants for armed robbery and cocaine distribution, the report says. Also, he had a folding knife and some marijuana on him, police say. He was brought to MBTA police HQ for the warrants - and to be issued citations for fare jumping and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Innocent, etc.

Scott Eisen was at Logan this afternoon to watch the president arrive on Air Force One en route to fundraisers at Symphony Hall and in the South End.

Not everybody was pleased to see Obama in Boston. Mediacrity photographed protesters, who included Occupiers, Palestinian supporters and some Republicans.

Copyright Mediacrity. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

An outraged South Ender wonders why dog owners refuse to go to the neighborhood dog park instead of befouling Blackstone Square:

Leash enforcement. Now. I've counted 18 dogs running unleashed. One has just mounted and began mating with another, both too far from their owners for it to be broken up before my 6 year old nephew asked me what was going on. This is madness. The fountain is a filthy dog bath, and the stench of poop is in the air no matter which bench you sit on.

Yes, some people still prefer their news on paper. South Ender Michael Ratty reports he didn't find a copy of the Globe outside his apartment this morning and his neighborhood 7-Eleven didn't have any, either.

When you mess up my morning newspaper and coffee routine, you deny me everything. EVERYTHING!

UPDATE: At 9:30, the Globe tweeted: "We apologize for the late papers today. Due to a production problem last night the paper is late for home and retail."

Boston police officers lined Albany Street this afternoon as the body of Springfield Officer Kevin Ambrose, slain on a domestic-violence call, was loaded into a hearse at the state medical examiner's office there for the journey to his funeral in Springfield.

Police officers and firefighters also lined overpasses across the Massachusetts Turnpike, while State Police blocked traffic from heading westbound so that the funeral procession could speed on its way. The procession exited Boston around 5:30 p.m.

Only they didn't seem to be much reassured. The Daily Free Press reports on the latest meeting on BU's biolab, which wants to bring in the world's deadliest pathogens for study.