Sunday, August 11, 2013

Drug Deal Leads to Deadly Shootout in Dorchester

"2nd suspect still at large in Dorchester shoot-out" by Peter Schworm and Meghan Irons |  Globe Staff, August 08, 2013

A shoot-out in broad daylight left two Boston police officers wounded and a suspected gunman dead, plunging a busy Dorchester street into chaos and sparking an extensive, door-to-door search for a second man who remained at large Wednesday night.

As armored SWAT vehicles rumbled down quiet side streets and teams of gun-toting officers combed backyards, witnesses and officials described a terrifying burst of violence that shattered the calm of a summer day.

Remind you of something, Bostonians?

Just before 2 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said, two drug-unit officers were working undercover on Dorchester Avenue when they saw two men, who appeared suspicious, involved in a confrontation of some kind. When they approached the scene and identified themselves as officers, one of the men raised a weapon and “began a gun battle with the officers,” Daniel Linskey, police superintendent in chief, told reporters at the scene.

Police killed one of the men, while the second man escaped on foot. The two officers sustained minor bullet wounds to their legs.

During an evening briefing, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis identified the man killed as Roudy Hendricks, 20, most recently of Brockton.

“This individual has a lengthy and violent record,” Davis said....

And thus deserved to die.

Many residents said the shoot-out unfolded in the middle of a family-oriented neighborhood....

“Gangs are on every street here,” said Patrick Mayo, 52. “And they don’t think nothing of shooting you.”

And here I was told crime was down in Boston.

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"Police link gun found at scene to dead suspect" by Meghan E. Irons and Colin A. Young |  Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, August 08, 2013

Roudy Hendricks, the man killed in a gunfight with police in Dorchester Wednesday, was armed with a handgun and used it to fire on two officers as they approached him, according to officials from the Boston Police Department.

Hendricks, 21, shot at the drug enforcement officers, identified as 24-year veterans Harry Jean and Terry Cotton, said police spokeswoman Cheryl Fiandaca.

“In this case, it’s alleged that Hendricks had a firearm, which was recovered from the scene, pointed it at police officers, and fired several rounds, injuring both of them,’’ Fiandaca said in a written statement.

Fiandaca did not give additional details on the gun and how police tied it to Hendricks.

The gun battle began around 2 p.m. on Dorchester Avenue, near Shepton Street, as the two plainclothes officers were conducting a drug investigation, police said. They saw two men acting suspiciously, and when they approached, one of the men began shooting, authorities said.

The officers returned fire, striking Hendricks, a high school dropout from Urban Science Academy who had been arrested in the past. He was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he later died....

The other suspect, described as armed and dangerous but who has not been identified, is still on the loose....

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who pointed out that police have made a concentrated effort searching the Dorchester neighborhood, urged a crackdown on repeat criminals, saying that too many offenders move easily in and out of the justice system, to the community’s peril....

Related: Sunday Globe Special: Alemany Was on Prescription Medications 

Should have killed him when they had the chance.

In Brockton, a grieving mother described her son, Hendricks, as a churchgoing young man who doted on his 5-year-old nephew and loved basketball. She said he was a respectful person, but followed the wrong crowd. 

Yeah, yeah. All these thugs are always great guys.

Deborah Price also said she believes the use of deadly force by Boston police against her son was unjustified.

“He didn’t deserve to die that way,’’ Price said in a telephone interview Thursday. “He was shot down like an animal.”

Standard operating procedure in most big cities across AmeriKa.

Price said police told her that the officers were staking out a drug house and that they saw two men who looked suspicious.

Time to legalize it all so no more kids get blown away by cops.

“When they [police] got out of the car, the two guys started shooting at them,” Price said. “Roudy was one of those two guys.”

She called her son a “good kid,” but she acknowledged that he had been arrested four times since he was 17. Two of those were for violating terms of his probation by removing an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Related: Wide use of ankle bracelets creates headaches

Why remove it? No one is watching.

According to court records and the Boston police Web page, Hendricks was arrested on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition in 2010. In that incident, officers found a cocked and loaded handgun in the back seat of a car he was riding in, a police report said.

But Hendricks was later found not guilty at a trial in Boston Municipal Court.

How did the cops blow that one?

Records also show that he had a case pending in Dorchester Municipal Court stemming from a Nov. 30, 2012, arrest on charges of driving a stolen car. He almost collided with an unmarked police cruiser on Victory Road in Dorchester and then drove to Mill Street and pulled alongside a curb, a police report said.

Officers following behind drew their guns and ordered Hendricks out of the car. He left the car in drive and it rolled toward the officers and the cruiser, police said. As it did, Hendricks fled.

He was caught as he tried to climb a fence, the report said.

On Thursday, a dozen lit candles marked the Shepton Street site where Hendricks was fatally wounded.

A man who described himself as a close friend stood by and prayed. The two met as boys at the Church of God of Prophecy in Roxbury, where, he said, Hendricks participated in youth service and the annual Christmas play.

“He was a quiet person,” said the friend, who did not give his name. “He did everything he was asked to do.”

I feel bad for his family who will never see him again.

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And they got the other guy, right?

"Man at scene of shootout held on probation violation" by Peter Schworm |  Globe Staff, August 09, 2013

A man who police said was at the scene of a Dorchester shootout that left two Boston police officers wounded and an alleged gunman dead was ordered held without bail Friday after being arrested in a crawl space in a Malden apartment.

Donta Lewis, 20, of Roslindale was charged with violating his probation from a previous conviction, but was not charged in Wednesday’s shooting in Dorchester, a seemingly random burst of violence that sparked an intensive manhunt for a second suspect.

Authorities would not definitively say whether Lewis was that suspect, who has been described as armed and dangerous, but said he acknowledged being at the crime scene with Roudy Hendricks, a 21-year-old who police say opened fire on two drug-unit officers before he was shot and killed.

“He was, in fact, at that location” at the time of the shooting, Christine Walsh, a prosecutor with the Suffolk district attorney’s office, said at a court hearing Friday.

Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said detectives are following good leads as they try to identify the second suspect, who authorities think was armed.

“The investigation into Wednesday’s shooting remains very active,” he said. “No one has been charged at this point, but detectives are following solid leads as they try to identify the second individual believed to have had a gun at the scene.”

Police say Hendricks fired several rounds at two plainclothes officers as they approached him on Dorchester Avenue about 2 p.m. Wednesday. Police said his gun was recovered at the scene.

They are also investigating whether Lewis or anyone else also fired at the officers, who had leg wounds and have been released from the hospital.

Police said the officers, Harry Jean and Terry Cotton, were conducting an unrelated drug investigation when they saw two men acting suspiciously. When they approached the men, both reached into their clothes, and at least one opened fire.

Investigators were checking to see whether surveillance video was taken of the shooting. 

What took them so long?

Hendricks’s mother said police told her both men fired at the officers, who were doing a stakeout on a drug house. She described her son as a good person who got in with the wrong crowd.

They are all good boys.

Boston police tracked Lewis to his girlfriend’s apartment in Malden and found him Thursday afternoon hiding in a small storage space behind a closed door with a bed pushed against it, authorities said.

He had been hiding in the crawl space for “quite some time,” Walsh said.

Jessica Dembro, Lewis’s lawyer, said his probation violations were minor and asked the judge to place him under house arrest. She said he had registered in community college and has a child on the way.

“He is not charged with anything” related to the police shooting, she said.

Court records show that Lewis has previously been charged with larceny and disorderly conduct and pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property. In August 2012, police saw Lewis roll through a stop sign and attempted to pull him over, but Lewis refused to stop, according to a police report. When they stopped the vehicle, police learned it had been stolen from Quincy a few days earlier, the report stated.

Lewis has also been arrested in Malden for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, authorities said.

Looks like a troublemaker.

Lewis violated his probation by staying out past his curfew and failing to check in with probation. Dembro said he had tried and that probation knew his whereabouts.

Lewis is scheduled to return to court Aug. 30 for a hearing on his probation violation.

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At arrests are being made:

"Two men arrested in Dorchester shooting

Officers arrested two men in connection with a shooting in Dorchester early Saturday morning, the Boston Police Department said. Erickson Deaveiga, 18, of Boston, was charged with armed assault with intent to murder, unlicensed possession of a firearm and ammunition, and trespassing. Dayshawn Harris, 18, of Randolph, was charged with armed assault with intent to murder, resisting arrest, and trespassing, police said. Around 4:45 a.m., police were investigating a shooting on Burrell Street in which a car with three occupants was shot. None of the occupants was hurt. While speaking to witnesses, officers allegedly heard gunfire nearby and saw Deaveiga and Harris running from the scene. After a short foot chase, the two were arrested."

Oh, sorry; different shooting.