"Brother of Dorchester shooting victim reaches out; Activist harbors no hatred, says killing must stop" by Travis Andersen | Globe Staff June 09, 2014
A Dorchester political activist and advocate for peace fought tears on Sunday as he expressed a willingness to help the person who fatally shot his younger brother on Friday night in the neighborhood.
“I don’t even have any hatred toward the person who has done this to my brother,” said Joao DePina, 35, after identifying his sibling, Michael DePina, 29, as the victim.
“I just want to know why. What did Michael say to you? . . . And then I want to ask him, was it worth it?” Joao DePina said. “I want to ask him if he could find it in his heart to apologize to us, to our family.”
And then in the midst of his incomprehensible grief, DePina said, “I will forgive him, and then I will continue to work with his family to help him out.”
Joao DePina, who worked as field director for state Representative Evandro Carvalho’s recent election campaign, said his younger brother had been living with a longtime girlfriend in Quincy. But for reasons that remained unclear Sunday, he was gunned down on Taft Street Friday about 8:40 p.m.
The younger DePina loved working with his hands and had started his own landscaping business. There had been troubles in the past, struggles with mental health issues and the court system, but Joao DePina said those were not the things that defined his brother.
“I know what Michael was to me, and that’s my brother,” said Joao DePina, who has volunteered on political campaigns and mentored youth through community groups and nonprofits. “I don’t know what Michael did. I don’t care what he did. He didn’t deserve to be gunned down and shot, one bullet to the back of the head.”
A Boston police spokeswoman said Sunday that no arrests had been made in the slaying, and that the motive was under investigation.
Police said at the scene on Friday that residents of Taft Street heard gunshots, and officers found a man, whom Joao DePina identified as his brother, lying on the ground near an overturned motorcycle. Investigators also recovered two guns from the crime scene.
Michael DePina had recently been working on another motorcycle, his brother said on Sunday. “Me and my brothers went to the basement today, only to find that he had taken a motorcycle totally apart and had re-created a new motorcycle,” DePina said. “Because that’s who Michael was. He was very crafty with his hands.”
A memorial of candles and flowers was visible at the shooting scene on Sunday.
Related: Darryl Dookhran Deserved to Die
Also see: Only Sadness Regarding Salisbury Slaying
A woman who sat alone near the remembrance Sunday afternoon described Michael DePina as a “very close friend.”
“He had such a good heart,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.
Isaura Mendes, a Dorchester activist who cofounded an annual peace march that was established in 2000, said she has worked with DePina’s family and spoke to them Saturday.
“It’s very sad,” Mendes said. “We don’t know what to do. These kids live with a lot of pain. I say this all the time. We just don’t know what to do.”
Joao DePina issued a call on Sunday for better mental health care for disadvantaged youth, particularly those who are in the custody of the state child welfare agency, as he and his brother were growing up.
He also vowed to continue his efforts to help young people.
“My [call] is to please, please stop killing each other,” he said. “We are doing ethnic cleansing to our community, and that is not good.”
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Twenty-one years ago next month, Darrell Marriro was outside his family’s three-decker on Harold Street in Roxbury when three men drove by and opened fire, striking the 32-year-old in the chest. He staggered down the street, collapsed, and died on a nearby corner. On Sunday, his younger brother met the same fate, at precisely the same spot. The killing capped a violent weekend in Boston."
I guess I'm glad I went last week.
Related:
A violent weekend in Boston
After early spike, city sees dip in violent crime
Maybe you would like to take a shoot at the agenda-pushing mixed messages.
Related: Walsh's World
That's a cleansing of a different sort.
Is it live or is it fakery, folks?
"Man with gun unnerves restaurant workers; Staff calls 911, leaves" by Faiz Siddiqui | Globe correspondent June 09, 2014
ROWLEY — Stephen Brown was taking inventory at Spud’s Restaurant and Pub when a cook rushed in from the kitchen. There is a burglar at the side door, the cook told Brown, making his hand into an L-shape around 9:15 Monday morning. He was carrying a gun and asked to talk to the manager, the cook said.
Do I even have to type the word absurd?
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m not going to talk to a burglar,’ ” Brown, the general manager, said later in the day. “Call 911.”
Brown gathered the three cooks who were on the premises. They left an uncooked tray of bacon on the counter and walked out the front door. A Rowley police car pulled in as the employees reached the parking lot.
By then, the man had left.
Sigh. Seriously?
Authorities were not certain whether the incident was a threat against a single person or an aborted robbery attempt. Either way, it rattled employees.
“Maybe he got cold feet,” said Detective Lieutenant Joe Gamache. He called the incident strange, but said Rowley is a small town that experiences “big city crime” on occasion.
Because of the incident, Spud’s opened an hour late Monday....
Where's muh spuds?
Police blocked off the entrance to a strip mall next door and directed traffic away from the restaurant, said Lynn Norloff, owner of Lynn’s Vintage flair across the street. Norloff said she saw about six police cars in the restaurant parking lot as she prepared to open her store.
“I saw the police with rifles and canines,” she said. “They were walking through the woods.”
State and Rowley police had not found the man by Monday afternoon. Authorities believe he may have fled in a blue two-toned car that employees spotted in the parking lot in the morning....
Police were attempting to review surveillance footage from businesses along Route 1. Brown said the restaurant encounter was the oddest he has experienced in 15 years as general manager.
“I can’t even fathom what the guy was thinking,” Brown said. “For him to say, ‘Go get your manager,’ I’m surprised he didn’t come with him. It didn’t sound like he was an aggressive burglar.”
Yeah.
--more--"
Related: Leaders of the Revolution Commit Suicide in Las Vegas
You know what I'm thinking.
Also see:
House panel hears opposing views on gun bill
DeLeo’s bill on gun violence clears public safety panel
That's the point of all the scripted and staged shenanigans and hoaxes, isn't it?
Is it live or is it fakery, folks?
"Man with gun unnerves restaurant workers; Staff calls 911, leaves" by Faiz Siddiqui | Globe correspondent June 09, 2014
ROWLEY — Stephen Brown was taking inventory at Spud’s Restaurant and Pub when a cook rushed in from the kitchen. There is a burglar at the side door, the cook told Brown, making his hand into an L-shape around 9:15 Monday morning. He was carrying a gun and asked to talk to the manager, the cook said.
Do I even have to type the word absurd?
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m not going to talk to a burglar,’ ” Brown, the general manager, said later in the day. “Call 911.”
Brown gathered the three cooks who were on the premises. They left an uncooked tray of bacon on the counter and walked out the front door. A Rowley police car pulled in as the employees reached the parking lot.
By then, the man had left.
Sigh. Seriously?
Authorities were not certain whether the incident was a threat against a single person or an aborted robbery attempt. Either way, it rattled employees.
“Maybe he got cold feet,” said Detective Lieutenant Joe Gamache. He called the incident strange, but said Rowley is a small town that experiences “big city crime” on occasion.
Because of the incident, Spud’s opened an hour late Monday....
Where's muh spuds?
Police blocked off the entrance to a strip mall next door and directed traffic away from the restaurant, said Lynn Norloff, owner of Lynn’s Vintage flair across the street. Norloff said she saw about six police cars in the restaurant parking lot as she prepared to open her store.
“I saw the police with rifles and canines,” she said. “They were walking through the woods.”
State and Rowley police had not found the man by Monday afternoon. Authorities believe he may have fled in a blue two-toned car that employees spotted in the parking lot in the morning....
Police were attempting to review surveillance footage from businesses along Route 1. Brown said the restaurant encounter was the oddest he has experienced in 15 years as general manager.
“I can’t even fathom what the guy was thinking,” Brown said. “For him to say, ‘Go get your manager,’ I’m surprised he didn’t come with him. It didn’t sound like he was an aggressive burglar.”
Yeah.
--more--"
Related: Leaders of the Revolution Commit Suicide in Las Vegas
You know what I'm thinking.
Also see:
House panel hears opposing views on gun bill
DeLeo’s bill on gun violence clears public safety panel
That's the point of all the scripted and staged shenanigans and hoaxes, isn't it?
