Dudley Square

UPDATE: Boston Police identify the victim as Clifton E. Townsend, 22, of Mattapan. His friends knew him as Cliffy. He leaves behind a young daughter.

AlertNewEngland and Stanley Staco report somebody was shot shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Dudley Street near Harrison. The victim died later. Two suspect fled up Mt. Pleasant Avenue.

Yesterday afternoon at Dudley station, WCVB reports.

Boston Police report arresting an 18-year-old on charges he fired a gun around 2:15 p.m. at Zeigler and Dearborn streets. Officers attempted to stop a man on a bicycle:

Boston Police report arresting two teenagers for an incident yesterday in which somebody starting shooting a gun on Washington Street.

The alleged shooter, police say, is 14. He didn't hit anybody.

An MBTA cop saw the shooting and started chasing the pair:

During the foot chase, police observed the male juvenile toss a firearm. The firearm, a 9mm semi automatic was fully loaded and was recovered under a vehicle in the area. The suspect, a 14 year old was apprehended with the assistance of another Boston Police officer on a paid private detail. An additional suspect, a sixteen year old male believed to be involved in the shooting was also taken into custody.

The 14-year-old was charged with delinquency for unlawful possession of a firearm. The older teen was charged with resisting arrest and assault and battery with a firearm.

UPDATE: Alleged shooter is 14.

Boston Police are investigating a burst of gunfire outside the Citizens Bank, 2343 Washington St., around 3:15 p.m. Nobody was hit; three men were quickly arrested after an officer on patrol saw them firing a gun - which was recovered in the parking lot of the old B-2 station house.

Last month:
Man shot to death at Dudley station.

Courtney Jackson.Updated Friday morning.

A man shot in the stomach around 9:50 p.m. at the Dudley MBTA station was pronounced dead not long after at Boston Medical Center. WBZ reports the man was shot in the station, then stumbled onto a crowded 28 bus.

Friends are identifying him as Will Jack, also known as Courtney Jackson.

Brian Cooper, 25, and Jamel Bannister, 22, are scheduled for arraignment today in Roxbury District Court on murder and firearms charges, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Both were nabbed not long after the shooting by Boston Police officers working a detail nearby. Transit Police say the shooting was not random - the pair targeted Jackson.

Boston Police report arresting a man on charges he tried to rob a Citizens Bank branch in Dudley Square today - six years after he was arrested for robbing a Citizens Bank branch downtown.

Police say Marco Willis, 40, walked into the branch at 2343 Washington St. around 11:40 a.m. Police say he approached a teller with a deposit slip with "NO DYE PACK" written on it and held up to his chest:

Jonathan Napoli told a City Council committee yesterday he wants to add a medical-marijuana dispensary to the hydroponics store he runs in Dudley Square.

That's good news for Councilor Bill Linehan, who says he's worried the city would try to pack all five Suffolk County dispensaries into his South Boston/South End district. But not everybody in Dudley Square is thrilled by the idea.

"Is Dispensary how we want Dudley defined?" Kaidi Grant asks this morning. "Dudley doesn't need to be known as the Weed District," she says, adding that Napoli's assertion that a dispensary would bring economic vitality to the square can be countered by other efforts to improve the area - such as the city's reconstruction of the old Ferdinand building into BPS headquarters. "Dudley needs positive branding to rebuild for the future."

City councilors this morning began a formal discussion on how to allow the medical-marijuana dispensaries approved by voters last month while letting neighborhoods have a say on specific locations.

The law approved by voters would allow up to five dispensaries in a county.

City Councilor Bill Linehan, who represents South Boston and the South End, said he understands the need for medical marijuana and that he understands medical-marijuana use doesn't lead to substance abuse, but said his district already suffers crime and other problems from methadone clinics - and already has more than its fair share of other medical facilities:

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a man they say went even more berserk than he already was when ordered off a bus in Dudley Square for swearing at the driver.

Police say that around 7:45, a route-45 driver picked up Carlos Ramirez-Rodrigue, 38, at Blue Hill Avenue and Dudley Street:

Ramirez-Rodrigue entered the bus and immediately began yelling and swearing at the driver who asked Ramirez-Rodrigue to get off the bus which he did. While exiting the bus Ramirez-Rodrigue spit in the direction of the driver multiple times. When Ramirez-Rodrigue exited the bus, the driver closed the front passenger side door. Ramirez-Rodrigue then began punching the front passenger door with a closed fist and shattered the window.

A roving UHub photographer captured the scene in Dudley Square yesterday.

The Herald reports the Brown campaign is paying homeless men about $8 an hour to act like Brown has supporters in Roxbury by holding Brown signs and wearing shirts proclaiming them "Obama supporters for Brown."

Rula Jones, 18, and Ilm Jones, 20, both of Mattapan, are scheduled for arraignment today on manslaughter charges for the death of Lance Hartgrove, 15, outside the Dudley Square Social Security on July 10.

Rula Jones was arrested shortly after the stabbing on unrelated charges. Both were indicted this week by a Suffolk County grand jury. They also face a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for the nonfatal stabbing of a second victim. A third person also survived getting stabbed in the incident.

The DA's office provided this account of what may have started as a simple fight - which may explain why the grand jury indicted the two for manslaughter, rather than murder:

Ferdinand livecam.

The Dudley Square building is being turned into the new headquarters of the Boston school department.

Via Both Ends of Dudley.

UPDATE: Arrest made.

Boston Police have released photos of a man they say is a "person of interest" in Wednesday's stabbing death of Rashad Barnes at a Dudley Square bus stop.

UPDATE: Arrest made.

A Dorchester man became Boston's fifth murder victim since Saturday when he was fatally stabbed in an argument at a route-23 bus stop in Roxbury this afternoon.

Friends have identified him as Rashad "Rizzy" Barnes, 25.

Brian D'Amico reports the victim was getting off a bus at Warren and Kearsarge streets around 2:45 p.m. when he was stabbed by another man also getting off the bus. The stop is a short walk from both the B-2 police station and Roxbury District Court.

Ironically, just yesterday, Barnes tweeted:

Rula Jones, 18, arrested in Dudley Square shortly after the stabbing death of Lance Hartgrove and the non-fatal stabbings of two other people yesterday, is scheduled for arraignment in Dorchester District Court today on warrants for unrelated charges, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Jones is not yet facing any charges related to the triple stabbing; the DA's office says the investigation into those crimes continues.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Police report a fight in front of the Social Security office shortly before 2 p.m. ended with three people stabbed - one of them fatally. Friends tonight are identifying the murder victim as Lance Hartgrove, 15.

The other two victims are expected to survive; neither was older than 21.

An officer on detail for the Sandra Bullock movie - the one for which a trailer was smashed into by a T bus yesterday - helped capture a suspect.

Dudley bus crash. Photo by Eric Esteves.

Matt Grabowski tweets it happened at Dudley and Warren around 9:30 a.m. and that at least 12 people were injured. The Boston Fire Department reports several people were taken to local hospitals, with all expected to survive. The bus plowed into a trailer set up for the production crew of a Sandra Bullock movie being filmed in Dudley Square.

More photos: The injured | The bus | The injured and the bus

Filmogaphy: Bullock, of course, previously starred in a movie about an exploding bus, as Jendepo182 notes.

Today's Our Dudley Square Day in Dudley Square - 11 - 8 p.m.

Iseut lists the specific stores she'd love to see renting space in the new 'n' improved Dudley Square.

I have a dream. That dream is about a fair shake for everyone regardless of race, sexual preference, gender, ethnicity, or economic bracket but it also includes a quality restaurant open after 6 p.m. and on the weekends, a fish market where fresh fish outnumber fly swarms, and a clothing store where the owner greets me with something gentler than a snarl and a glare as I enter. My dream Dudley would include many of the below orgs/stores/businesses (in no particular order), and if not them, then independently owned galleries and shops with similar measures of creativity and decent customer service - things which are kinda rare in Dudley Square now.

Updated 9:45 p.m.

A Brockton man is charged with setting a one-alarm fire that did an estimated $100,000 damage to a house at 7 St. James St. last night, Boston Police report.

James Stewart, 27, is considered dangerous, and may be on the way to Vero Beach, FL in a black 1992 Lexus LS400 with Florida plates: 9112GE. He may also be with his two-year-old daughter, Harmony.

Firefighters responded shortly before 11 p.m. to find a fire blazing on the first floor. The fire was knocked down about 20 minutes later. No residents were injured, but one firefighter was treated at Mass. Eye and Ear for an ear injury, the department says.

Police say witnesses saw Stewart walking away from the fire.

Know where he is? Contact B-2 detectives at 617-343-4275 or the anonymous tip line by calling 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to CRIME (27463).

Innocent, etc.

The Bay State Banner reports on a proposal for a three-story building with retail on the first floor on what is now a vacant lot at Taber and Warren streets. The city broke ground just this past weekend on the project to turn the old Ferdinand building into the new school headquarters and to build a new office building next to it.

Both Ends of Dudley posts photos from yesterday's groundbreaking for the Ferdinand project in Dudley Square, which will become the Boston Public Schools headquarters. The ceremonies included a cake in the shape of the rehabbed building and the new office building next to it.

Roxbury Wakeup is a site dedicated to the premise that the city's plans to renovate the Ferdinand building as the new BPS headquarters is just a plot to gentrify the Dudley Square area:

This project will essentially put a stop to any future retail and social growth, as well as any possible wealth building within the community. It is a CIVIC MUNICIPAL BUILDING. It is a static linear placeholder for the city’s use. Relocating the Boston Public School headquarters’ 500 employees does not GENERATE local jobs. The jobs are already filled! It is not an organic revitalization component and does not ADD to the fabric of this creative, artistic, historic community, and will systemically drain its energy. It is a micro filler, and not a solution that will successfully address the macro issues of this community. It is GENTRIFICATION.

Proposed alternative: Turn the Ferdinand into a hub of social and multimedia networking that would generate new jobs.

The Globe reports on the impending start of the project to turn the derelict Ferdinand building into the new Boston Public Schools headquarters.