gangs

Police are at Heath and Lawn streets, where a person was found shot in the leg shortly before midnight. He is expected to survive.

A car seen fleeing the scene with two or three occupants was spotted around 20 minutes later in the area of Harold and Homestead streets, in the territory of the H Block gang; a gun was located on Hutchings Street nearby.

Last month, a Braintree man with alleged ties to the Heath Street gang was arrested on charges he shot a man on Holworthy Street in the heart of H Block territory.

A Braintree man associated with Jamaica Plain's Heath Street gang was ordered held in lieu of $75,000 bail today on charges he shot somebody on the home turf of the rival H-Block gang on Friday after he allegedly tried but failed to shoot somebody else on the same street the night before, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Prosecutors had asked for bail of $1 million for Paul Walrond, 22, of Braintree, at his arraignment today in Roxbury District Court. Judge David Weingarten set the lower amount.

Boston Police report finding a man shot around 7:50 p.m. yesterday at 41 Holworthy St. in Roxbury's H Block area.

The victim is in stable condition, police say.

Police say a witness reported a black Cadillac fleeing the scene. Not long after, police say:

Glove compartment of rental car outside Roxbury District Court on Oct. 23.

On Oct. 23 of last year, detectives who'd been listening in on the phone conversations of two gang leaders as part of a year-long investigation had to risk exposing their surveillance: One of the two had just given a minion the go-ahead to take out a rival gang member. And not in some remote location - but right in the lobby of Roxbury District Court.

Boston Police report they are looking for Jackson Barros, 30, of Dorchester, in connection with today's early morning raids aimed at breaking up two Dorchester gangs involved in drugs and guns.

This would not be Barros's first arrest. In 2003, he was charged with distributing crack in Roxbury.

Anybody who knows his whereabouts can call the anonymous tip line at 800-494-TIPS or text TIP to CRIME (27463).

Innocent, etc.

Several hundred Boston police officers and federal agents swarmed through Dorchester early this morning, arresting some 30 alleged members of the Woodward Avenue and Hendry Street gangs in a bid to quell violence in the Bowdoin/Geneva and Uphams Corner neighborhoods - in particular in the Cape Verdean community.

Officials specifically targeted alleged Hendry leader Alexis Hidalgo, 31, of Dorchester, and alleged Woodward leader Jonathan DaSilva, 29, of Roxbury, in an investigation that began in 2011. In a statement, the US Attorney's office said:

The Globe reports today that Gabriel Clarke, the 13-year-old choirboy shot at Humboldt Avenue and Homestead Street while walking to church last night, is in critical but stable condition.

His shooting is just the latest in an endless string of gun violence in an area just north of Franklin Park known as H Block because most of the street names start with H - Humboldt, Homestead, Harold, Harrishof, Holworthy - and in the area around the Bromley-Heath housing project in Jamaica Plain.

The H Block Gang and the rival Heath Street Gang have been shooting at each other - and at completely innocent bystanders since the 1980s. Children and teens who have nothing at all to do with the battling often wind up as victims as gang members just drive onto their rival's turf and start firing.

UPDATE: Reactions from the DA's office and the victim's family in the comments below.

The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered a new trial for Lamory Gray, ruling the Heath Street gang member got an unfair trial before he was convicted of murdering somebody he thought was a member of the rival H-Block gang in 2006.

The court ruled a rap video, in which Gray was seen apparently pledging as a member of Heath Street, should not have been entered as evidence in his 2009 trial because it unfairly prejudiced the jury against him without having any direct connection to Herman Taylor's murder. Taylor was a Metco student who had nothing to do with gangs.

Press Pass Tv is a non profit organization that is dedicated to telling the stories of the community using film. Four young Black women were shot Sunday night August 12th while they sat in their car parked on Harlem Street in Boston. We went to Dorchester to talk to community members about how we can help stop the violence in our community. We hope that you will be able to share this story with other people who believe that it is time for a change, especially here in Boston. Click on the link Murders On Harlem Street to watch the video.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Donald Ray "Mann" Williams, 26, guilty of a variety of charges, including armed assault with intent to murder, for a shooting that will require a former friend to use a wheelchair the rest of his life, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Prosecutors say the victim was a member of the Greenwood Street Packers, of which Williams was head thug. On Nov. 23, 2007, however, the victim met with other gang members and told them he was giving up gang life. According to the DA's office:

Alleged Mozart gang member Christian Green making his gang sign, from federal affidavit.

Three alleged members of the Mozart Street gang - which has been tied to murders and violence from the Dominican Republic to a Jamaica Plain pizza place - were indicted this week on federal gun charges after they were allegedly observed shooting "three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at paper targets in an apparent effort to improve their marksmanship."

Christian Green, Jeffrey Medina and Sherwin Garcia were indicted in US District Court in Boston on charges of being felons in possession of firearms following their arrest on Dec. 22 as they left a shooting range in Salisbury. All three are convicted felons, which makes it illegal for them to handle guns, but police watched them enter and leave a Salisbury shooting range, at which they paid their $333 tab in cash after shooting hundreds of rounds at eight paper targets in two shooting lanes, the indictment alleges, adding they all signed a waiver saying they had no prior felony convictions.

In an affidavit filed against Green, Boston Police Officer Manuel Blas wrote he was surprised when he learned of their trip north:

An expired inspection sticker proved the undoing of four alleged gang members, including one braced for action, late Wednesday night, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

According to a statement from the DA's office, officers on patrol near the Lenox Street housing project had just gotten word a carful of toughs from the Washington Street gang were on their way over, when they spotted a black Acura Legend with tinted windows and an expired inspection sticker at Hammond and Tremont streets around 11 p.m.

District A-7 reports a guy "known to officers as a gang member" was spotted spraying the letter "S" on a wall at 259 Bennington St. around noon on March 17. Why an "S"? Officers found a further clue at 251 Bennington St., where they found a recently applied "MS," as in MS-13, a Central American gang with members up this way. Police add:

During the search of the suspect the officer pulled from the suspect's waistband on the right side a knife which is about 17 inches long.

District A-7 reports a man stabbed with a knife on Saratoga Street around 11:20 p.m. on Dec. 4 told a witness "he was stabbed by person(s) that he believes are affiliated with MS13." Taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Shades of Fruits and Vegetables: Boston Police are bracing for trouble in West Roxbury this weekend following a fight on Centre Street last weekend that left three teens seriously injured:

After investigating the incident it was determined that the dispute was between teenagers from West Roxbury and other surrounding neighborhoods. These individuals are students at Catholic Memorial, Boston Latin, and Boston Latin Academy.

Officers from E 5 are expecting a second incident to occur this weekend. The Area E5 police officers will have zero tolerance for this type of behavior. In order to be preventative in our approach to this matter we ask residents to be vigilant and to communicate any information they may have to the police. Be mindful of where your teens will be spending their free time during the weekend, and enlighten them on the consequences of not only being involved in a fight, but merely just being present during it.

David Bernstein argues that all the attention being given Jahmol Norfleet (killed earlier this week) detracts from the struggles of Roxbury, Dorchester and JP residents who have to put up with gang violence all the time - and who never belonged to a gang:

... One building in the Bromley-Heath project -- literally, one single apartment building -- was one of Boston's five "hot spots" of gun violence identified by the BPD a year ago. Honest, decent B-H residents terrified for their children constantly beg the city to do something about it; they must be oh-so-thrilled that the city seems to care more about how the Heath Street gang affects Jahmol Norfleet than them. ...

Adam Reilly has the details.

John Daley, one of our boys in blue, wonders whether the local media (and he's looking at you, Boston Herald) is helping to fan gang violence, with cavalier headlines and re-identifying kids who now fear for their lives.

Jay Fitzgerald, who writes for the Herald (albeit not the gang beat) doesn't get the media criticism from Daley and Adam Reilly (who pondered the wisdom of the Globe reporting on a secret gang peace deal):

... I'll leave it to others to determine the validity of the individual complaints. But something almost epic seems to be unfolding (or unraveling, in this case) in our inner-city neighborhoods -- and criticizing the media's coverage of yet the latest cold-blooded gang murder seems to miss the overarching point that cold-blooded gang murders seem to be occurring at a baffling and frightening pace. ...

Bryan Clark also heard the gunfire at Morgan Park and discovers Cambridge has gangs, but that Mayor Kenneth Reeves can laugh them off because he thinks Cambridge gangbangers are wusses who don't stack up to the gangs of his Detroit youth. Clark writes:

... Every time a gun goes off around here you can hear the police cars all converging on my neighborhood. From almost a mile away the sirens go on and you can see the lights flashing as they twist and turn their way to Area 4 (aka gansta's paradise). ...

More from the Bay State Banner on a recent spate of violence in Boston's Left Bank.

Earlier:
Shots fired.

Eileen discusses the Fruits and Vegetables gang (members allegedly worked in Produce at local supermarkets) that is charged with beating up people in West Roxbury:

... They've beaten the crap out of some locals and they're that particularly irritating brand of white kid that has never suffered or wanted for anything. They go to good schools, their parents are cops and firefighters, and they're arrogant. ... I can't imagine you can get much street cred by wearing a maroon apron and toting bushel barrels of shallots around Roche Brothers Supermarket. I sincerely hope someone takes a baseball bat to each and every one of those little pug-nosed, freckled, pasty-faced bastards. ...

Earlier:
Never dis the produce guy.
The mean streets of Westie.

For the second week in a row, the West Roxbury Transcript leads with the shocking story of the local gangbangers:

It's not a gang
Mom defends Fruits and Veggies son

Now, as a long-time member of the Fourth Estate, I applaud people who talk to reporters. But even if you do believe your teen-age son is "a lover, not a fighter," if you can't remember how many times he's been arrested for one thing or another, well, you might not want to return that call from a reporter. But give mom props for maintaining her Westie pride through it all:

... In my opinion, these detectives are trying to keep this area from becoming like Dorchester. ...

Earlier: Never dis the produce guy.

The Roslindale Bulletin reports that police in normally bucolic West Roxbury are on the lookout for a group of former produce guys from the West Roxbury Roche Bros. and Shaw's who are beating people up at Billings Field. They call themselves the Fruits and Vegetables Gang.

The West Roxbury Transcript reports that many of the lads are students at Catholic Memorial and Boston Latin, and that they've now started calling themselves the Talk Shit Now Gang. The paper adds:

... But most of all, Martell said, this gang doesn't resemble a gang such as the more venemous MS-13. ...