Mission Hill

Saraaj Abdulnur, 19, of Roxbury, arrested in Brighton on charges he fatally shot Shawndel Mitchell, 22, of Roslindale, early on Oct. 7 at 84 New Whitney St., Mission Hill.

Electricity? Who needs that?

A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Etanis Cumba, 19, not guilty in the murder of Joseph Wilson, 20, on Oct. 2, 2005, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Prosecutors had alleged that Cumba crashed a Huntington Avenue party, got into a fight with Wilson and stabbed him several times in the chest.

Jurors deliberated for two days.

boston.com: Mother screams at suspect after acquittal.

Earlier this year, the DA's office charged an alleged accomplice of Cumba's with witness intimidation.

While riding a bicycle, Otelino Goncalves, 21, of Lynn allegedly shot a man at Bowdoin and Tovar streets around 1:30 this morning, Boston Police report.

About an hour later, police report arresting a Wentworth student, Aidan Lindh, 19, for allegedly doing his part to mark up Mission Hill:

... On arrival, officers observed the suspect applying paint to a US Mail Box. When officers approached the suspect, the suspect immediately dropped a can of spray paint (pink in color). ...

This was after a passerby told officer he had seen a man tagging the side of a house.

Yesterday:
Northeastern students get very special invitations.

Specifically, to answer charges in Roxbury District Court: Boston Police report busting up three loud parties within an hour on Mission Hill early this morning, arresting a total of 10 Northeastern students; nine on charges of "being keepers of a disorderly house" and one on a charge of being a minor in possession of alcohol.

142 St. Alphonsus St., 89 Hillside St. and 1548 Tremont St. suddenly grew quieter after police showed up between 12:28 and 1:33 a.m.

The arrests came the night after police busted up another party, at 1540 Tremont St., where police arrested three 20somethings on those disorderly-house charges:

On arrival, officers observed approximately 15 to 20 individuals standing on the rear porch, drinking alcoholic beverages. After gaining entry into the apartment, officers were confronted by an individual who yelled, "Who let you in?"

Decosta Turner, 17, of Roxbury, was arrested yesterday morning at 71 Pontiac St., allegedly after breaking into an apartment, and police say he may be responsible for a string of recent burglaries in the neighborhood:

Upon arrival, officers spoke with the victim who stated that he observed a young black male in his apartment who pulled a knife out and stated "I am taking you stuff". The victim stated he went into another room, locked the door and called the police. The victim stated he waited about two minutes and looked out of the room to see that the suspect had left.

Seems Andrew White, a.k.a. Tel, who marked up much of Mission Hill, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a felony charge of vandalism of property. In addition to two years' probation, he has to pay $10,000 to the Community Alliance of Mission Hill and Wentworth College. Harry Mattison of Allston, who attended some of the court hearings, is thrilled:

... White is a particularly prolific tagger and we hope that this severe penalty will send yet another pointed message to the tagging community that Boston will not tolerate this expensive vandalism anymore.

Reggie Knight, charged with fatally stabbing his girlfriend and a male companion 15 years ago, was found not guilty by a jury in Suffolk Superior Court today, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office announced.

Boston Police report:

Man, 35, found shot repeatedly near 194 Parker Hill Ave. around 12:40 this morning. Taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Man leaving a gas station at Cummins Highway and Itasca Street watches two guys shoot at a third guy around 3 a.m.; then realizes he got shot, too. Taken to Brigham and Women's; will live. Later, the guy the thugs were aiming for apparently checked into Boston Medical Center.

Teen, 17, found stabbed in the arm and back at 87 Faywood Ave. in East Boston around 1:18 this morning. Victim told police he was in a fight with two guys, whom he didn't know and who fled in a beige vehicle. Taken to Mass. General, also for treatment of injuries not considered life threatening.

John Conley, 40, of Mission Hill, today pleaded guilty to manslaughter for using an aluminum baseball bat to kill a downstairs neighbor who was himself wielding a nail gun during an argument on April 12 of last year, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office:

Boston Police report that when a tow-truck driver asked a woman to move her double-parked car in a Columbia Road parking lot yesterday afternoon, she started cursing him out and threw oil at him:

The suspect was arrested and charged with Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon to wit: oil.

Alas, no word on whether the oil was motor or salad.

Meanwhile, over in Roxbury, a man became verbally abusive when a meter maid asked him to move his car on Malcolm X Boulevard. He refused, so she whipped out her ticket book. He then got in his car and rammed into her as she tried to put the ticket in his windshield. And then he learned that you get charged twice when you hit a meter maid while she's performing her job: Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon and Assault and Battery on a Public Employee.

Also, early this morning, police broke up a big, loud party on Copenger Street on Mission Hill:

As the partygoers started to leave officers encountered one individual who did not want the party to be over. This individual started yelling at officers and refused to leave the party. The officers attempted to escort the belligerent partygoer out when she assaulted officers by kicking them while donning combat boots.

Also: Police investigating the sound of gunfire wound up arresting four guys from Dorchester and Roxbury on illegal weapons charges; a coupla young teens from Mattapan and Roxbury discovered it's not a good idea to travel over to Hyde Park and parade around the street with fake guns like you own the joint (allegedly, of course).

If BPDNews isn't enough for you, you can always sign up for the Boston Police's Citizen Alerts, which are e-mail messages designed to alert residents and businesspeople in specific neighborhoods about things they should be on the lookout for - patterns of specific types of crime and the like. The latest one, though, doesn't give residents anything to look out for, but seems designed to press home the department's new push to get people to actually tell it things:

... Area B-2 Detectives uncovered an operation in which a Mission Hill man solicited men on the Internet, for sex for a fee. Detectives obtained a search warrant and arrested the suspect and seized his computer. This investigation was the result of cooperation from the community and the Police. Without the help of the residents this activity would have been difficult for the Boston Police to discover and investigate. ...

Pixnit spray paints buildings and is an acclaimed artist. Tel spray paints buildings and is a common criminal. What makes one better than the other? A publicist?

Also, John Daley wonders why the Globe found Tel's arrest more compelling than a firefight on a Dorchester street between armed thugs and the police that forced the evacuation of several homes (to read about that, you'll have to read the Herald).

Add border historian Charles Swift to the list of people who wish real-estate brokers would stop conflating neighborhoods. Specifically, stop calling Mission Hill part of Jamaica Plain:

... First, Mission Hill is not part of Jamaica Plain. Look at the two names. One has "hill" in it, the other "plain". These two geographic features are mutually exclusive. Jamaica Plain was that part of Roxbury which flattened out from Fort Hill and Mission Hill, from the Stony Brook over to Jamaica Pond. ...

However, he adds that Jamaica Plain is, and always will be, part of Roxbury.

John Daley snaps a cool, eerie photo of Mission Church at the end of one of yesterday's snow squalls.

On Left Center Left, Chris Cagle reports on the mystery that was the Ward 10 Democratic caucus for Mission Hill:

I felt like a French peasant in the provinces while revolution waged in Paris - vaguely aware that something was happening elsewhere in the state, but unsure exactly what it could possibly be. ... I'm mystified by these tallies that people are giving for Patrick vs. Reilly's delegates, or news that Reilly led in Boston. How do they know? Is it something that the campaigns themselves tally? Because there was barely a word at my caucus of how anyone would vote at the nominating convention.

Derek takes the photo.

What do you people have against poor Dan Grabauskas? Yeah, I'm talking to you, Single Girl in the City. Just because the T reduces the number of cars on Green Line trolleys after the students return is no reason to complain about how overcrowded that makes things:

... When the train came and the doors opened, I was nearly run over by a very butch woman headed for the empty seats. She actually ran into me, plowed into me to be exact and had the audacity to turn around and glare at me for getting in her way. ...

Oh, wait, and I'm also shaking my finger at you, Mr. Left Center Left. Just because you walked from Mission Hill to Allston Village AND BACK AGAIN without once ever seeing a single 66 bus, well, does that give you the right to complain about how the 66 schedule (buses every 10 minutes) is a lie?

... Sure, I don't have anything constructive to tell the T about how to fix that, but I can say that a schedule which says buses run every 10 minutes is a fiction and a lie and is given to T riders in bad faith. Sometimes you can be unreasonable, but sometimes you have to hold someone's feet to the fire. ...