Egleston Square

SWAT unit moves in. Photo by Courtney Sacco.

Note: Post updated with new information from Boston Police.

Washington Street was shut down Thursday afternoon when two men wanted in connection with a fight barricaded themselves into a garage and the SWAT unit arrived to get them out.

Boston Police report one of the men, Corey Govan, 40, was arrested on a charge of unlicensed possession of a firearm after he left the garage at 2953 Washington St., near Dimock Street.

According to police, a 911 caller reported a fight, followed by two men fleeing into the garage:

Officers attempted to make contact with the individuals inside the garage. When officers were unable to establish contact, a Code 99 (barricaded suspect) was declared. A perimeter was established around the location and the Boston Police SWAT Team was called to the scene.

It took about two hours for police to get the two out; the second man was not charged.

Exactly a month ago, two men were shot, one in the chest, near that location..

Photo copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

THURSDAY UPDATE: The Licensing Board voted to let the two restaurants re-open. However, it set Roast Beast's closing time at 7 p.m. - owners had asked for midnight.

The Boston Licensing Board ordered Roast Beast on Comm. Ave. and the Millennium Restaurant and Grill on Washington Street to shut today because they don't have licenses to serve food.

Owners of both restaurants told the board they opened after the city's Inspectional Services Department told them they could open as soon as they passed health inspections. Roast Beast opened last month; Millennium six months ago. Wrong: Restaurants also need a "common victualer's" license, which only the Boston Licensing Board doles out, Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer told them.

In both cases, the shutdown could be short - the board votes tomorrow morning on their requests for a common victualer's license. Ferrer told the owners of Millennium to think of today as a vacation day.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports one was sent to the hospital with "life threatening" injuries after the shooting on the 2900 block of Washington Street - which also put a bullet hole in the rear window of an SUV parked nearby. The shootings were not reported on BPDNews.

Over the past year, the area around Egleston Square has become a battleground between the feuding Mozart Street and Boylston Street gangs. Three alleged Mozart associates with lengthy records were indicted this week on federal gun charges. However, police did not release a possible motive for the March 7 shooting.

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:

AlertNewEngland reports two men in an apparently stolen car tried to speed away from police and wound up hitting a pedestrian on Columbus Avenue and two cars, including one that finally stopped them on Seaver Street.

The two men fled on foot. One suspect was quickly captured; the other made it to the bear cages at the Franklin Park Zoo before being apprehended.

The owner of the Egleston Square Pharmacy pleaded guilty today to two counts of conspiracy to defraud the government, the US Attorney's Office in Boston reports.

Aloysius Nsonwu, 64 and a resident of Roslindale, either submitted bogus claims to Medicare for AIDS drugs for patients who were not HIV-positive or submitted claims to Medicare for drugs for actual HIV-positive patients who agreed to accept cash payments instead of the medicine they were supposed to get, according to prosecutors.

Nsonwu made $100,000 with the fake prescriptions and $46,000 in the scheme to give HIV patients some money instead of drugs, the government says.

He could get up to 20 years in federal prison when sentenced May 11.

Nsonwu was indicted on similar state charges last year, involving $300,000 in allegedly bogus HIV-related reimbursement claims submitted to the state.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports the 19-year-old is expected to survive the 1:30 p.m. drive-by shooting outside the Mendell School on School Street on Thursday.

Luis Torres, one of the two people shot Saturday evening on Boylston Street died yesterday, according to Betsy Cowan, director of Egleston Square Main Street. He was 23.

In e-mail, Cowan says a community vigil is planned for 8 p.m. at Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St. And she says the community is determined to carry on:

I stopped by Saturday and yesterday and found many people outside, visiting the businesses and caring for each other at a makeshift memorial. Several people who've been working on a community garden were there as well and planted bushes in the garden as a sign of new life and hope. The neighbors, with support from Spontaneous Celebrations, the street workers, trauma response and many others, are organizing a vigil at a local church.

I also visited the owner of Plaza Meat Market, at the corner. He said, "I'm not scared to work here in this neighborhood; what I am scared of is that people won't shop in my store anymore." We're encouraging people to patronize the local businesses and spend time in the neighborhood to support their community.

What follows is a letter Egleston Square Main Street sent to the Globe after an article it ran about eight shootings on Washington Street (the Globe did not run it):

NECN reports two people were shot around 6 p.m. at 205 Boylston St. and that one has life-threatening injuries.

Boston Police report a man who got on an elevator at the Walnut Park Apartments building at 1990 Columbus Ave. around 8:50 p.m. last night found himself being patted down for money by another guy in the elevator and when he resisted, was stabbed several times.

David Wint, 48, of Roxbury, was arrested on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after two other people in the elevator confirmed the victim's story. The victim was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to survive, police say.

Innocent, etc.

So this guy borrows some money from a kid in Egleston Square, promises to pay it back the next day and then doesn't. Kid gets upset, throws a rock through his window on Walnut Avenue. Instead of paying up, the guy calls police.

According to Boston Police, when officers find the kid, they also find "a plastic bag with an of white rock like substance believed to be crack cocaine." And then, police say, they find three more similar bags.

So now the 15-year-old, from Jamaica Plain, faces charges of possession of class B with intent to distribute, possession of class b with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school zone and conspiracy to violate the drug laws, in addition to a charge of malicious destruction of property (the rock through the window). A guy he was with, Jesus Ramos, 23 of Roxbury, was also charged with the same drug charges.

Innocent, etc.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says he's ordered increased uniform patrols in the neighborhood and that the city has dispatched two street workers to the area following two incidents last week that left eight people shot on the same block on Washington Street.

An improperly vented water heater sent carbon monoxide 20 stories up a Roxbury apartment building, forcing the evacuation of scores of residents, many of whom needed special help to get out.

At least four residents of the Walnut Park Apartments, the distinctive round building at 1990 Columbus Ave., were evaluated for CO inhalation.

The Boston Fire Department struck a second alarm around 11 a.m. because of the number of residents who needed help in being evacuated from the building, which has 168 units. Some Boston firefighters were already in the building when CO detectors began going off - they were there to lead a fire-safety class for residents, the Boston Fire Department reports

The CO readings were high enough that firefighters were ordered to wear breathing apparatus above the sixth floor. On the top floor, firefighters reported readings of 500 ppm at the trash chute - serious health problems can start with readings of 100 ppm.

BFD says the source was a basement water heater next to a trash chute that goes up to the top of the building. By noon, firefighters were reporting CO readings of zero near trash chutes on the upper floors of the building.

The MBTA sent buses for residents to sit in until the building could be ventilated and the source of the carbon monoxide shut off.

Boston Police report the five were shot around 4;30 P.M. near 3151 Washington St. Three were taken to Boston Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries; two to Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Alert New England reports police are looking for a black male, in a black shirt, who fled on a bicycle down Boylston toward Amory.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports.

Boston Police report three men wound up in the back seat of cruisers on gun-related charges after they broke simple traffic laws.

On Washington Street in Egleston Square, WBZ radio and the Globe report.

NOTE: I originally pointed to a Channel 4 report, which said the man was killed on Washington Street in Roslindale, and I should have known better than to trust Channel 4, because they seem unable to figure out the geography of any neighborhood south of the Fenway.

Boston Police report they are looking for a man who held up a Hyde Park market, ordered the owner into his own van and then drove it up to Egleston Square, where the thug crashed the van and the owner escaped.

Police ordered six nearby schools locked down as they looked for the robber/kidnapper - who is still at large tonight. He's described as black, about 5'7" and in his 40s. Police report what happened after the robber walked into the store with a gun: