Egleston Square

Anulfo Baez, who is chronicling Boston's public murals, reports on the graffiti that now covers the mural on the side of Lawson's Brother's Hairstyling Salon in Egleston Square.

AlertNewEngland report somebody was shot, possibly repeatedly, at Columbus and Weld avenues around 4:50 p.m. The suspect fled toward Washington Street. The homicide unit was summoned.

Boston Police report Stephen Hogan, 24, of Dorchester, was arrested during a drug investigation in the area of Columbus Avenue and Bray Street yesterday.

Officers assigned to the Drug Control Unit observed a white male walking and talking on a cell phone while also carrying what appeared to be a plastic bag in his hand. The suspect was seen entering a vehicle which then went for a short drive around the block before dropping the suspect off. Believing that a drug transaction had taken place, officers approached the suspect after he exited the vehicle and found him to be in possession of a plastic bag containing a tan powder believed to be heroin.

Hogan is the son of Fire Chief Gerald Hogan. However, he is no longer a Boston firefighter. Fire spokesman Steve MacDonald says he resigned after his arrest Hogan had been a probationary firefighter - he had served less than a year.

Innocent, etc.

Source.UPDATE: Beverly was already scheduled for trial on Feb. 11 on on a charge of domestic assault and battery for an incident in June, 2012 in the home of a 43-year-old Dorchester woman, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Boston Police report arresting Tikee Juan Beverly, 37, of Roxbury, for two rapes this weekend in a vacant lot on Washington Street.

Beverly is scheduled for arraignment tomorrow in Roxbury District Court on three counts of rape for the two incidents, one Saturday morning, the other Sunday morning. In both cases, police say, Beverly struck up a conversation with a woman at Columbus Avenue and Washington Street, then led them to a vacant lot on Washington, near Townsend, and raped them.

In 2004, a federal judge sentenced Beverly to ten years in prison after he was convicted for six bank robberies in Dorchester, Roxbury and Malden. He was released from federal custody in May, 2012, although his Facebook page suggests he was in a halfway house before then - it shows he got a job at Haley House in 2011.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Police report a man led a woman from Egleston Square to a vacant lot at 2900 Washington St. Saturday morning and raped her. The same thing happened to another woman this morning, police say.

Police say in the first incident, around 11:30 a.m., the man approached his victim and got her to talking:

Back when Egleston Square had a movie theater and an elevated train, in 1939, as captured by Leslie Jones. Jones also photographed snow removal closer to downtown - back when the downtown skyline consisted of one building:

More Leslie Jones snow photos.

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Boston Police report a raid on two shops on Washington Street yesterday by several city agencies ended with both shut down for a variety of alleged infractions.

Police, responding to resident complaints about possible gambling and sales of drug-related paraphernalia, say they shut the Dollar Store, 3122 Washington St., and arrested Mario Ovalle, 57, and Francis Gonzalez, 41, on charges of running an illegal lottery, after officers found betting slips not bearing the imprimatur of the state Lottery Commission.

The Boston Licensing Board today granted Walgreens a license to sell liquor on the mezzanine of the old Borders in Downtown Crossing, which it's turning into a chic-ish emporium that will also feature eyebrow trimming.

But the board rejected a request from Coco's Lounge on Washington Street to offer patrons with money to blow tableside bottle service. The vote means Bostonians who want the chance to spend extra money to have a server pour them drinks at their table will have to go to one of the few places downtown or in the Back Bay that the board has allowed to offer the service.

Coco's Lounge, 3169 Washington St., goes before the Boston Licensing Board next Wednesday for permission to offer bottle service.

The board has granted relatively few bars permission to dedicate bottles to tables, and typically has required the bars to dedicate a server to pouring drinks from those bottles, rather than just letting patrons have at it.

Boston Police making a traffic stop yesterday wound up recovering 10 one-kilo blocks of cocaine from a hidden compartment in a mini-van, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The driver of the van, Elvyn Rafael Garcia, 31, of Hyde Park Avenue, was ordered held in lieu of $30,000 bail at his arraignment in Roxbury District Court, according to the DA's office, which had requested bail of $1 million.

Mike Ball recently wandered around Hyde and Egleston squares, taking photos of all the murals.

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Judy Spreckels says tow-truck drivers eager for extra revenue always prowl her neighborhood at the start of street-cleaning season to hook trucks parked on the wrong streets. She reports this morning, however, that fights broke out on Atherton Street when drivers from competing companies showed up:

Just witnessed 8 tow truck drivers from 3 different towing companies loudly fighting directly outside my home. For 20 minutes. Happens every week with street cleaning. Trucks parked on sidewalks, engines running, and now fighting.

Boston Police report arresting a Roxbury man they say refused repeated demands to drop the butcher knife he was brandishing as he ambled down Washington Street around 5:45 p.m. yesterday:

Boston Police report that when officers on patrol noticed a guy in "full sprint" on Washington near School around 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday, they sensed "that something didn't seem right" and stopped to ask the guy if he was OK.

Guy allegedly told officers he was running away from some "shady looking people" who were chasing him. Officers looked down the street and, sure enough, somebody was chasing the guy. Only it turned out the reason that person was in full pursuit, police say, was because the initial runner had reached into his pocket and lifted his wallet.

The original runner, Tyson Cooper, 24, was arrested on a charge of unarmed robbery after his pursuer IDed him and after, police say, officers searched him and found the other guy's wallet on his person.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Police report a Boylston Street teen who allegedly tossed a box full of guns and crack out a window and a West Roxbury man hiding in a crawl space over his bathroom were arrested yesterday afternoon as part of an investigation into crack dealing.

Niko Flores, 17, was arrested around 2:30 p.m. at his apartment at 209 Boylston St. by officers who'd arrived there with a search warrant. An officer assigned to guard the rear of the building looked up just in time to see:

UPDATE: Police say death was a homicide.

Boston Police report the body of a 60-year-old woman was found around 10 a.m., Saturday at 8 Wardman Rd.

Although police say her cause of death will be determined by an autopsy, they are asking anybody who might know anything about the death to contact homicide detectives at 617-343-4470 or by calling the anonymous tip line at 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to to CRIME (27463).

UPDATE: The Globe reports the woman was Gail Miles, Watertown’s first black police officer.

Brian D'Amico reports two men were stabbed right in the square this evening; both are expected to survive.

UPDATED 1:20 p.m., Wednesday.

Boston Police report arresting two men in connection with a Tuesday-night shooting on School Street that sent one man to the hospital.

Neither Rey Fulcar, 25, of Roxbury, nor David Arias, 19, of Roxbury, however, was charged with the actual shooting, from which the victim is expected to recover, police say.

Abdul Jabar Mohamed, 28, was arraigned today in his bed in the Mass. General burn unit, where he is being treated for serious burns authorities say he suffered when he tampered with the gas line in a Roxbury apartment in an attempt to kill himself, sparking a six-alarm fire that damaged apartments in seven connected buildings.

Roxbury District Court Judge David Weingarten set bail at $100,000 on charges of assault with intent to murder, arson of a dwelling, igniting a destructive device or substance, malicious destruction of property, and causing injury to a firefighter, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Prosecutors had sought bail of $500,000.

City Councilor Matt O'Malley reports Urban Edge is seeking clothing donations for people burned out of their Roxbury homes by that botched suicide attempt.

Drop clothing off at 1481 Tremont St. on Mission Hill.

EastBoston.com reports a fundraiser on Oct. 21 at the East Boston Yacht Club will benefit the residents of 45 Chelsea St., who had to flee their homes as the building next door collapsed.

Which we learn in this interview with his tailor, Egleston Square's own Rey Pimentel, who got the idea to embroider the likeness of a scorpion on a suit sleeve for Ortiz after visiting his house.

A clerk at the Egleston Square Citgo station got the station in trouble when he refused to hand a customer back his credit card and driver's license - at first, even after arriving police officers told him to.

The owner of the Washington Street station, Michael Levy, was before the Boston Licensing Board today to answer charges of failing to return a credit card to a customer and failing to cooperate with police because of the July 10 incident. The board has oversight because the station has a common victualer's license to sell food items.

Thick black smoke billowed across Egleston Square from a fire that quickly went to three alarms and set the rubber roof on fire at 1953 Columbus Ave. around 2:30 p.m.

The Boston Fire Department blames "careless disposal of a cigaratte" on a third-floor porch and says one firefighter is now in the hospital with chest pains. Some 12 people are now without homes.

The department estimates the cost of that cigarette at $250,000.

Egleston Liquors broke out its water for the firefighters battling the blaze in today's scorching heat, Egleston Square Main Street reports.

Boston Police report that when the 19-year-old told officers who caught up with him why he ran away from them last night while holding a can of beer, it was because he didn't want to get in trouble for drinking in public.

Merchants in Jamaica Plain's three main shopping districts - Egleston and Jackson/Hyde squares and Centre/South streets - hope to drive the point home on Saturday with a daylong celebration of Jamaica Plain shopping that will feature food sampling, cooking demos and one-day discounts.

Jamaica Plain has some 20 bodegas and other stores that sell all sorts of food, from organic to Caribbean - and employ more than 100 people, according to Betsy Cowan, director of Egleston Square Main Street, one of the groups behind the "JP Shopping Spree." All are accessible via the 48 Jamaica Plain loop bus.