"Savin Hill ambush victim changed her story, prosecutors say" by Brian Ballou | Globe Staff, April 05, 2013
The victim of a bloody ambush Monday in Dorchester is now denying that she told detectives the father of her infant son restrained her while his new girlfriend stabbed her repeatedly with a butcher’s knife, authorities said.
Prosecutors say Angeleek Barros, 21, told detectives moments after the assault that her former boyfriend, Daquan Sparks, restrained her while Samia Jones, 17, stabbed her six times with a blade that measured 10 to 12 inches long.
But in an interview at Boston Medical Center with police a day after the attack, Barros changed her story, saying Sparks was present during the attack but did not restrain her, said Jennifer OKeeffe, Suffolk assistant district attorney, during Sparks’ arraignment Friday morning in Dorchester District Court. Barros is saying she never told detectives that Sparks held her.
“I will say I spoke with detectives Doogan and Schroeder, who were very clear on what Miss Barros originally reported to them, that the defendant held her down while she was stabbed,” OKeeffe said.
Authorities have said Sparks, 19, lured Barros to the stabbing by saying he wanted to give their 8-month-old child a pair of sneakers. Sparks also has a 4-month-old child with Jones.
Barros was pushing her son in a stroller when she was attacked in Savin Hill , according to police. The boy was not hurt, but Barros had punctures to her liver and spleen. She was listed in serious but stable condition.
Sparks showed no emotion during the arraignment. His lawyer, Jessica Tripp, said he was present during the attack but was unaware of what was about to happen and did not participate.
Tripp said Sparks told her that he received a cellphone call just before the attack and walked away from Barros. Jones then “appeared out of nowhere,’’ Tripp said.
“It’s very stressful for him, but we know that once all the facts come out that we’re confident that he’ll be exonerated,” she said. “We believe there will be information in the phone records that will support Mr. Sparks’ version of events.”
Tripp told Judge Rosalind Miller that her client lives in South Boston with his sister and that he was looking forward to starting a job with Youthbuild, which provides vocational and academic training for at-risk youth.
A woman who attended the arraignment and identified herself as Barros’s godmother said she does not buy Sparks’ assertion that he did not restrain her....
Boston police’s Fugitive Apprehension Team searched for Sparks for two days, arresting him in Quincy on a probation violation stemming from a drug conviction.
In this newest case, Miller ordered Sparks held on $75,000 cash bail, which is $25,000 more than the amount set for Jones at her arraignment Tuesday. Sparks was also ordered held without bail on the probation violation....
Sparks has a lengthy arrest record dating back to when he was 10 years old, officials said. Dan Wight, a probation officer, said Sparks “had been arrested pretty much every calendar year” from that age on. His record includes charges of assault and battery, larceny, and drug possession.
A woman who only identified herself as a relative of Sparks said he is innocent.
“He has a heart; he’s not going to set his own baby’s mother up,” the woman said, walking down the steps of the courthouse.
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Related: Savage Savin Hill Stabbing
Also see: 2d suspect arrested in Savin Hill stabbing
Maybe some ice cream would make everything better?
"The event had been previously planned as a “Cash Mob,” a grass-roots effort organized via social media that sends crowds to local businesses to stimulate patronage, but with the stabbing of the 21-year-old mother, it was also dubbed “A Random Act of Kindness.”"
I call it controlled-oppo$ition prote$t.
UPDATE:
"Boston tries to deter girls from violence" by Meghan E. Irons | Globe Staff, April 08, 2013
It was just one of a roster of violent crimes by girls in recent months, punctuated last week by horrific allegations that 17-year-old Samia Jones used a butcher knife to repeatedly stab a young mother in the Savin Hill section of Dorchester.
City officials, alarmed by a string of high-profile cases and by what they say is a worrisome climate of fear among girls in some neighborhoods, are launching a public service campaign aimed at girls who may be headed toward violence.
“This is an issue,” said Marie St. Fleur, a top aide for Mayor Thomas M. Menino on urban issues who is leading the campaign. “We are trying to get our arms around it.”
The effort involves a marketing blitz of positive messages in neighborhoods such as Dorchester and Roxbury that will include billboards and posters, as well as posts on social media....
Local ministers and youth advocates say some girls have been fueling gang feuds and staging fights that are posted on YouTube and Facebook. Recent surveys of teen girls by officials looking to address educational gaps and health issues, such as sexually transmitted diseases, discovered girls in some neighborhoods named violence as a key issue....
Recent examples include a 15-year-old Hyde Park girl who was arrested last month after police alleged that she was among a mob who beat up an MBTA driver at a bus stop on Columbia Road in Dorchester. And last year, four young women were shot in a car on Harlem Street in Dorchester. Only one of them survived....
Girls have traditionally committed fewer crimes than boys, but some youth advocates say that girls have been the source of jealousy that has caused violence between rival teen males.
“Males in conflict will use the girls as pawns,’’ said Sheri Bridgeman, director of programs at the Center for Teen Empowerment, a local nonprofit....
Sort of how the U.S. government uses the media against us.
At least I know what nonprofits are now.
The girls’ campaign, still in its infancy, is focusing on the so-called ”Circle of Promise,” a city-designated swath of Dorchester, Roxbury, and other neighborhoods long mired in poverty, crime, and teenage pregnancy....
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Of course, sometimes it is okay to be violent, girls.
