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Murder victim identified as Raekwon Brown, 17

Raekwon Brown

The Globe reports on the teen shot to death outside Burke High School in Dorchester yesterday afternoon.

Two other students and a woman were also shot, but survived.

WBUR reports the school brought in grief counselors today.

He is Boston's 13th murder victim this year.

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Comments

I don't understand how a 17 year old can be in a position to get murdered. You figure with school, homework, after-school sports, part time job and SAT prep, kids have no time to get in trouble.

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Most Boston Public schools lack homework, after-school sports and SAT prep.

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What about structure and discipline from their parents, everyone points fingers. RIP

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Nothing I've read points to that at this point.

You can be in a position to get murdered by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or you or one of your friends gets into a minor beef with a coward with a gun.

RIP, young man.

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While yes it is certainly possible that he was not a troubled youth stats tend to reflect that people who are murdered tend to be people more likely to be involved in violence in the first place.

Is that necessarily the case here? No.

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The news is reporting that he actually pushed a lady out of the way then got shot

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I used to work at a community center with a teen lounge. It was a safe space for teens to hang out after school.

The teens were constantly wandering around the building looking for something to do besides sit in the lounge.

I couldn't fathom having that much free time as a teenager and once asked someone, "Don't these kids schools assign homework? I had 4-6 hours a night at that age."

At which point I as told I was being elitist and culturally insensitive and was told to be quiet if I liked working there.

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Didn't he get shot during a school fire drill?

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A sad story that is worthy of national attention...or at least local attention. Seems Boston.com took the opportunity to cover something more important ("How will Cambridge and Somerville pay for the Green Line Extensions, anyway?"). If you dig to the very bottom of page 1 of their news sections, you finally find a reference to this. I suspect if you pulled up a screen shot of the day following the guy shooting an air rifle behind a Brookline School, that news was still on the front page, but maybe its just me.

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You must be new around here.

To be fair to Mr. Henry's crew, their real news site does have coverage.

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print edition, the story is front page, above the fold. Don't go to BDC for news.

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Don't worry, not my primary news source. I of course was checking to see just what it would take to buy John Kerry's Nantucket mansion, but was discouraged it was not even noted.

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Yesterday afternoon, this was top of the page on BDC. But the top of their queue is the latest, not the most important.

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no one is coming forward but not surprising.

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Later, City Councilor Tito Jackson, who lives two blocks from the school, said Evans’s remarks “re-victimize” the students who have just suffered a tremendous trauma.

Calling people out for refusing to give police information is "re-victimizing", tell that to the dead kids mother Tito you *$&^(*& clown.

Even remarks -
“We know there are students that know exactly what happened,” Evans said,

“Enough with the stop snitching stuff,’’ Evans said. “We’ve got a mother who lost her 17-year-old child. Step forward. Have some courage and solve this one.’’

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There's a real fear of retaliation for people who live in that community. Someone knows who did it, and if someone talks, someone will know who that is as well. The problem is systemic, we can debate the origins forever but the reality is that is inner city life.

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Yes, there are real concerns about retaliation.

But a city councilor should not be castigating the police chief for calling for people to share information in a terrible murder. Jackson is a PR-hungry jackass.

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Seems to me somebody pulled the fire alarm for an opportunity to go outside and to settle a beef. My money is on the (other?)shooter being in class at the moment (or dodging school)

Have the police released how many shooters there were?

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And you're halfway to finding the shooter

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Tho for all we know the deceased was armed and also engaged in the gunfight. Considering the number of people hit I would not be surprised if there were 2 shooters. Could have been the deceased that pulled the alarm.

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Some kid it dead, the evidence released so far is that he wa a good kid, and I see no evidence to justify suggesting that he was a criminal.

Yet, while family and friends are grieving, you're publicly suggesting that he might be a criminal.

Doesn't this seem insensitive and inappropriate to you?

Are you saying it because of his race and gender? Is that fair?

I hope that you'll reconsider.

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Look at his picture think of his mother and thank God it isn't your family.

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And shameless, I might add

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Your wild fucking imagination of what is "street" - all in the service of ME HAVING GUNS GUNS GUNS!

A kid died AT SCHOOL. Leave the investigation to the professionals and find some better use for your paranoid fetishes.

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A comment like this?
Truly beyond the pale. Go crawl under a rock.

Condolences to this young man's loved ones and may he rest in peace.

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I will make sure I run my comments through you going forward to ensure that comments based on the limited information available are worthy of your approval.

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who it turns out saved a woman's life and died a hero.

That is some advanced achievement in internet scumbaggery.

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I did no such thing. I engaged in discourse regarding potential causes of this situation. The scenario I hypothesized is the most common cause of these situations.

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Take a break, man.

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Burke was not the only BPS high school to have a fire alarm pulled yesterday afternoon at about the same time. Not sure if its related or just some type of prank unrelated to the shooting, but I would hope that the police are aware of this already.

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I thought the same thing, but the Globe article said that the fire alarm going off appeared to be accidental.

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Thanks

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Offer a reward. Hell, offer witness relocation: "Tell us who cut down this teenage boy and we'll pay your expenses to go live somewhere better than this ghetto where people get shot all the time." Watch the sprint to the police station.

People make a culture. Maybe the culture will change if we start removing some of the people.

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Problem is Healy and Conley (both more interested in playing politician than doing their jobs) are fine with short sentences in exchange for plea bargains. Only the feds seem to make anything stick long term. And even they are only interested half the time they should be.

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and valid solution! Will you also relocate their extended family, friends, neighbors etc!?

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But I remain retired from talking about death on UH.

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Have you ever been to Grove Hall? Poor people. Yes. Gang bangers . Some. Ghetto? No. Ghettos don't have million dollar properties for sale.

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to be elected.

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His mother has to live this nightmare forever and we will forget his name in a week. We need more reminders of this madness and the aftermath of lives destroyed for no reason.

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He was the same age as my son. I couldn't imagine...

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And it's awful that it seems like a bigger deal is made about students just feeling uncomfortable at a different school than is being made about the death of this student.

There are, as Evans points out, students at the Burke right now who know why this boy was shot, and who shot him. Probably even the boy who shot him.

This should be treated as a civil rights matter. Students have a civil right not to be shot dead at their schools. Why isn't the US Attorney investigating the Burke instead of BLS? Are the lives of these kids less important to the powers that be than the feelings of others?

But no. Don't bother them. Don't "re-victimize" the kids by asking them questions. Tito Jackson is "disappointed" the commissioner is even asking students to come forth and say what happened.

But, somewhere far safer, Tito is first in line to get his picture taken with some girls who felt left out at BLS. Not girls who got killed. Girls who got looked at funny. Tito is all over that.

What the hell kind of community leader is that? Cowardice plus opportunism is a bad mix for a leader. You want to be a real leader, Tito, step up. Stop hugging the pretty girls and support the authorities to find the killer. Don't just let this slide like usual, don't just whine at the cops that they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

The kid who did this is walking right by your door every morning, Tito. Your door. Or did you have a more important cocktail party to attend in a safer part of town?

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Your rant just pretty much made more rational sense than Jackson's faux cry. The man is a charlatan for this and to think I voted for him! He never responded to a letter nor message of mine once

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conference. He'll show up.

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"Black community step up. If you want justice, if Black Lives Matter, step up. Give us the information so this child, this family, this community get justice."

"We're calling upon Governor Baker to exhibit the same concern in the black community for defenseless black children that is being currently being invested in the opiate crisis. Would you bring the same humanitarian concern that is now being invested in white men to defenseless young black children in the inner city."

Baker's Communications director, Lizzy Guyton responded:

"The safety of our communities is paramount to Governor Baker and his heart goes out to the victims' families and loved ones impacted by this terrible tragedy."

[source: WHDH]

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Yall realize that you have the same exact conversation a couple times each month, whenever a black or Latino young man is killed? "Pray for his family" v. "He probably deserved it . . . "Innocent until proven guilty" v. "Guilty based on the his background/location" . . . Newsflash: it's always the same conversation, and frankly, a dialogue on Crime Hub isn't going to do shit. For the sympathizers - praying isn't going to solve the problem; for the critics - complaining about thugs isn't going to solve the problem.

My god people, be proactive. If you are young then step up in the community and mentor a child, preferably one who is at risk. If you are older then try to support another parent who is struggling such that his/her child is likely the one who is at risk above. There is no sweeping reform through BPS funding or harsher sentencing in the judicial system that fixes this all at once. It needs to be done on an individual level.

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