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DA: Woman faces charges after shoving elderly woman, who falls, hits head in Chinatown

UPDATE: The woman who was pushed died this afternoon, the DA's office reports.

Tajanetta Downing, 24, was ordered held in lieu of $75,000 bail today at her arraignment on charges she pushed an elderly woman to the ground in Chinatown, "causing a serious head injury to the victim," the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

WBZ reports the woman is not expected to survive - and that a member of the Ghostbusters film crew helped police find her after the incident at Chauncy and Essex - near where they were filming yesterday.

According to the DA's office:

Assistant District Attorney Amy Galatis of the DA’s Homicide Unit told the court that Downing and the 72-year-old female victim crossed paths in the area of Essex and Chauncy streets yesterday. Investigators believe they had some fleeting physical contact after which Downing allegedly shoved the older woman.

The older woman fell and hit her head on the pavement. She was rushed to Tufts Medical Center with a serious, life-threatening head injury. She remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Downing's alleged temper has gotten her in trouble before.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Human garbage.

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Murderer

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According to another search of her name, she also assaulted a boyfriend and a T employee.
I pray that the courts lock her up for a very long time, if not forever. This really is the lowest of the low. At least keep her away for her childbearing years. Imagine what she could do to a small child.
My condolences to the family that has to deal with this. Its sad that even an elderly woman isn't safe from this nasty bully.

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Looks like "Qween Marie" finally went too far. No one agrees that "nettaisbetta".

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Shouldn't they be defending Ms. Downing for her anger management and physical boundary sensitivity issues likely having been the result of some physical abuse as a child and that the system failed her for not getting all the treatment she needed, just so this would not happen?

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Earning a living and producing value instead of insipid strawman arguments

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Shouldn't they be blaming the elderly woman for not being more aware of her surroundings? I'm sure she shouldn't have been walking alone, right? Of course SHE was asking for it by the way she was dressed, holding her purse, etc., etc.??!! Why didn't the elderly woman take personal responsibility and carry a weapon on her way to the grocery store or on the way to CVS to refill her heart medication? It's her own fault, RIGHT???!!! Sicko.

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Your post is silly. Please be quiet.

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Your post is silly. Please be quiet. It's not right or left wing to be responsible. Just a grown up.

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Linda, meet MarKKK. I'm sure you two will get along famously.

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The above comment was not mine, just a sorry mockery.

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"Where are the liberals on UHUB?" Want to claim that wasn't you? Linda sounds like a kindred spirit, you should be thanking me.

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I'm a liberal who believes in personal responsibility. Just wanted to chime in and say I feel stupider for having read your comment, as well as the one you're replying to. Have a great day.

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I believe they only blame the victim when the perpetrator is a man. Is perp is woman, they are OK holding perp accountable.

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correct. I misread it the first time through, so if you saw the original of this comment, that's what happened.

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Would you carry a weapon on your way? Should everyone carry a weapon on their own way? Is it legal?

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... but all the same -- a sane society _would_ have done something to deal with this person's obviously extreme anger issues long before this (mandatory treatment -- and if necessary, the least restrictive degree of isolation needed to protect others).

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It's great when this clod rises above his usual steady low grade drool stream and emits something so imbecilic as to touch sublime.

Jaws drop.. gasts are flabbered... dvdoff nearly chokes on his spliff. The magnetic pole for grotesquely dim inches ever closer to Arlington.

Fortunately for our composure this level of imbecility is difficult for him to sustain and he quickly subsides back to his usual self absorbed fool drool.

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MarKKK02474: Brave advocate for defenseless victims*

*except in many instances, such as pedestrians getting run over by SUVS in the crosswalk

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smoking a fatty with the dog by my side, enjoying this fine day. You, on the other hand,seem to be waiting for the death of an elderly woman to justify your continued assault on all of our sensibilities with your nonsense.

Trump 2016, eh, MarKKKKKKKKK?

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Don't let your dog get into your stash.

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Infinite curiosity meets infinitesimal judgement. I have friends who purchased a large gun safe for things that dogs shouldn't have, because the dogs can't chew through it.

I'm glad these guys called their vet first. That poor pup is blazed!

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If this was a road rage incident we know where your sympathies would lie.

"The elderly woman was taking too long to cross the street and not wearing a hi-viz vest in a freshly marked crosswalk with a solid white pedestrian signal"

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Running over your mama with a bicycle.

(tinfoil's on sale at Market Basket, MarKKK, better stock up)

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she should have the book thrown at her. She'll need to be kept away from especially vulnerable people (elderly, disabled, etc.) as well as children, for the rest of her life. She should also be sterilized.

That said: What is the basis or genesis of her out of control, uninhibited anger and behavior? Most likely genetics and childhood environment, which was probably very dysfunctional and full of ignorance and violence. She probably has a personality disorder(s), possibly even mental illness such as bipolar, etc.

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I'm trying really hard to work up some sympathy for this woman and whatever trauma she experienced as a child, but it just isn't working. Millions of children have grown up in horrific settings, experiencing war, famine and abuse. They somehow manage to grow up to be decent people. I'm thinking in particular about neighbors who were Holocaust survivors and the ones that fled Indo-China. They were/are all decent people, and could trump any "my childhood was miserable" claims.

Pushing elderly ladies off the sidewalk due to "anger issues"? Please. She's scum, forget the excuses.

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does that help you work up some sympathy?

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We left that one out of our comments. Or has that one gone out of fashion as an excuse for bad behavior?

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Mark was last in line for brains and is therefore intellectually underprivileged?

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Not a thing that our flawless criminal justice system is allowed to do to people, thank God. Some anons really seem to love the concept, especially for women. Kind of scary, at least to me.

Sounds like they had a scuffle ("fleeting physical contact") and the older woman died after being shoved. This doesn't sound like a first degree murder case, although it's a terrible thing to assault the elderly.

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Freud.

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I'm so glad WBZ took the opportunity to talk about the stars of the new Ghostbusters movie and even showed a picture of the Ghostbusters ambulance.....

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Commercial newscasts, local and national shave sunk to a new level of silliness. Makes me pine for the days of Jack and Liz, who between happy talk, actually reported some news stories.

To the subject at hand, it's simply sad that this young woman causes so much harm.

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Upgrade to murder victim didn't make it.

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Name withheld pending notification of next of kin.

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OMG - How sad.

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And now that the victim has unfortunately died, bring on the Howie Carr listeners who normally wouldn't give two shits about some old Asian woman until a black person kills them.

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Friday is hair transplant day, or lipo day or erectile dysfunction day or buy gold day or reverse mortgage day or long term care insurance day....within 5 years his audience will be dead or mentally incapacitated but healthy enough to vote for Trump and help elect another democrat.

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That's quite a mean spirited snark. Do the posters who get their panties in a bunch, and threaten to stop reading UHub because of mean spirited posts, make an exception for mean spirited snarks directed at certain demographics?

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it involves cyclists, kimono's, Boston 2024, Storrow Drive or the the T.

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You will find that a few of the regulars here on U Hub have an unusual facination with WRKO and the Boston Herald.

I think one of the posters here really has a Howie Carr fetish.

I find it amusing, but at the same time very odd - almost like its an obsession with some.

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to defend the same while usually adding disclaimers about not being a Herald reader or Carr listener.

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I've never said I don't listen to Howie! I do when I can. But I don't think I listen as much as you.

And no, I do not read the Herald - but many here seem to! I think it gives some people the
"complaint" they are looking for :)

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I can think of so many better and more enjoyable uses of time than listening to loud-mouthed blowhard Howie Carr, like cataloguing toenail fungus or cleaning out the fridge. And you really listen to him whenever you can? Wow.

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Wow is right! Can you imagine I listen in my car on my commute home!! Wowzers!!

Your outrage is hilarious!

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who is obsessed with disparaging the "beautiful people" while maintaining homes in Swellesley and Palm Beach? Or a man obsessed with people getting free stuff while having his hand out for any free stuff he can get? Or obsessed with calling for the blood of a Muslim terrorist while lining the pockets of an Italian American one?

That kind of obsession?

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"Patrice", Howie's go to caller?

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No, I have never ever called into a radio station.

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Yes, that kind of obsession.,

Myself, I don't get bothered about what other people have. It's not healthy

Let go..

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You seem to have left the paying the terrorist and racism parts out.

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"Paying the terrorist and racisim parts out"?

I have no idea what that sentence is supposed to mean, sorry.

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you certainly fit into Howie's key demographic, don't you?

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Ghostbusters, huh? Well, I hope this lady is haunted forever by what she's done.

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Most Chinese are very superstitious about ghosts and death, this is going to reiterate in the local papers World Journal and Sampan. Now the movie is going to really be haunted. I was down there today, if you want to blame anyone. After the crazy girl, it's really the cops and the film crew, the traffic should have been diverted, the film crews were yelling at pedestrians to go away and saying no pictures. Hello it's s public street! RIP grandma you will always be loved.......

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For all you cyclists, let this be a warning on how pedestrians can die if you run into and knock them down riding your bicycle. The deaths caused by bicyclists (eg. in SF and NYC) have most often been of middle-aged to elderly people who have been knocked down and hit their heads on the pavement much like Yuzhen Lei here. If you don't kill an elder, chances are good you will break their hip and they will then die within a year of suffering and trying to recover.

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Top-notch performance art in this thread. Stephen Colbert-level stuff.

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Actually, there aren't enough such incidents outside your fantasy world to even do stats.

Meanwhile, how many killed in hit and run with a car or truck in Boston this year alone? OH WAIT THAT'S ALWAYS THE PEDESTRIAN OR CYCLISTS FAULT!!!!!

Right. Some white dude with multiple license suspensions and a borrowed rental car mows people down driving in a reckless manner and you are right there with all the excuses in the world for the loser and vicious attacks on the minority victims. Ditto for your drunk driver friends "confused" by traffic islands. Because car. Some black woman knocks over and kills an elderly lady and you start building strawmen to attack.

Go take a leap into alewife brook - it has some nice, ripe CSO discharge for you to swim in. Why limit yourself to the metaphorical?

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Stop taking the bait.

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I grew up hearing the gospel of Jesus H. Christ, however.

Care to testify?

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So much confusing blasphemy!

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I thought Christ WAS the cracker ... or the cracker is Christ.

I'm so confused!

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You clearly missed the point of my comment above. Bicyclists (and a fellow pedestrian in this crime) don't think they can kill someone by bumping into them and knocking them down. They can, and here is an example of it. That is the point.

Less surprising and noteworthy is that pedestrians and cyclists can die from being hit by motor vehicles. That was never in dispute nor were any relative comparisons, except in your imagination.

Google provides many hits for cyclists hitting and putting pedestrians into comas if not killing them. For car accidents, Arlington has had a staggering 3 pedestrian fatalities in the past 18 months. The pedestrians AND the drivers were all 60 years old or older.

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... and blow away with the next breeze.

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Google provides many hits for cyclists hitting and putting pedestrians into comas if not killing them. For car accidents, Arlington has had a staggering 3 pedestrian fatalities in the past 18 months. The pedestrians AND the drivers were all 60 years old or older.

Many hits? "Many" is not a number, and a hit is not an incident. Try googling "Charleston church shooting". About 53,200,000 results, Google says! Gee, I didn't know there were 53 million churches in Charleston, let alone 53 million church shootings. So let's dispense with "many hits" as validating anything. Instead, let's see how many incidents we can find in Arlington in the past 18 months of a pedestrian killed by a cyclist. Now let's see...pedestrian killed by a car...pedestrian killed by a car...gosh, is Google broken? I just can't find a single incident of a pedestrian being killed by a cyclist in Arlington in the past 18 months.

*For the reading public, I hear there are some tasty apples and oranges on the other side of MarKKK's moving goalposts, but you're gonna have a hell of a time getting to them.)

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Going for the Barking At The Moon Crazy hat trick on this one, are you, MarKKK?

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This 24 year old woman I hope she gets life in prison for what she has done put your hands on a 72 year old god what is the world turning into my prayers go out to to this woman's family and I hope the one who did it rites in hell

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