"Teen charged in shooting death of younger brother in Mattapan" by Peter Schworm, Meghan Irons and Maria Cramer | Globe staff, February 07, 2014
In what police described as a horrific tragedy, a 9-year-old boy was shot and killed in his family’s Mattapan apartment by his 14-year-old brother Friday morning, anguishing neighbors and prompting a plea from the city’s mayor for residents to surrender unwanted guns....
In a prepared statement Friday, the Department of Children and Families, the state’s child welfare agency, declined to say whether it had any involvement with the family.
Related: Massachusetts DCF: Then and Now
And they rank dead last in the nation now!
At the scene, Mayor Martin J. Walsh called the death a tragedy and urged residents to turn in guns to police.
“A 14-year-old should not have access to a gun,” he said. “There are far too many guns in our streets.”
See: Patrolling the Beat With the BPD
“I’m calling for the community to step up to the plate and report these guns. Parents, siblings — we need to get these guns off the street,” he added....
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz also said members of the community need to do more to track down guns in their homes and turn them over to police.
“You have to get the message out into the community that we share a sense of responsibility,” she said.
Well, she should on some things, but I reject lumping me with the guilt for things I have nothing to do with.
“The solution is not just law enforcement. The community has to be involved, do what they can, and cooperate with police.”
Make sure you salute.
State Representative Gloria Fox, who represents Roxbury, visited the home with a grief counselor, saying the tragedy underscores the need for stricter gun control measures in a neighborhood long plagued by gun violence.
Gun-grabbers exploiting tragedy for political agenda.
“Why would someone so young have a gun?” said Debra Brown, 54. “Why weren’t they in school? Where were the parents? It shouldn’t have to be this way.”
On Morton Street, residents decried the easy availability of guns, even for young teenagers, and the fear that pushes them to buy weapons.
“The sad thing is it’s so easy to get a gun in Boston,” said Nelson Martinez, 43. “He probably didn’t have to look very hard.’’
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Despite the cold weather Friday, neighbors gathered near the home where the shooting occurred, saying they were struggling to come to grips with what had happened....
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"Teen charged in Mattapan shooting had violent past; Police, state dealt often with 14-year-old now held in brother’s shooting death" by Maria Cramer and Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, February 10, 2014
The 14-year-old Mattapan youth charged with fatally shooting his brother last week had such a history of violence that his mother repeatedly called police for help in controlling him and state officials had tried to take custody of the teen.
So DCF must have been involved.
The details emerged Monday as the teen was arraigned in Dorchester District Court in the killing of his 9-year-old brother, Jan Marcos PeΓ±a. The teen said he got the gun allegedly used in the shooting for self-protection, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.
His behavior prompted officers to come to his house in Mattapan at least three times over the last year, according to police reports. In one instance, his mother said he slapped his little brother in the face and knocked him to the ground.
The teen has been arrested three times for assault, and in May was sent to a residential program designed to help troubled boys, according to police reports. He ran away from the Norwood facility the same day he arrived.
Social workers from the state Department of Children and Families repeatedly visited the teen at his home, said Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz, and tried to gain custody of him but were denied by a judge.
The agency worked with the teen for the past two years, trying to help the mother manage his behavior.
“The department did all the right things in this, and we just have an incredibly tragic outcome, with guns that we have to get off the street,” Polanowicz said. Officials, citing confidentiality, refused to identify the judge or the court who denied the state custody of the teen.
At least they knew where the kid was.
A social worker continued to visit the house. The last home visit was Jan. 30, about a week before the shooting.
The worker who tried to help the family “is shattered that this happened on his watch, and was almost inconsolable when he found out,” Polanowicz said.
The teen, whose name has not been released because of his age, appeared in sweatpants and a shirt in a juvenile session Monday where he faced charges of involuntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm. His mother and older sister sat in the courtroom during the closed proceedings. The youth denied the charges in court.
Afterward, the teen’s mother, her face covered in sunglasses and a scarf, left the courtroom, gripping the hand of her son’s lawyer, Michael Doolin, who described his client as “heartbroken” over his brother’s death.
“He’s terrified and he’s very, very sad,” Doolin said. His mother “seems like a real good mom to me. She’s very concerned, obviously going through the grieving process but she was there in court for her son today. . . . It’s something that no parent should have to go through.”
"Search for solutions focuses on getting guns off streets" by David Abel | Globe staff, February 08, 2014
With another child killed in Boston, officials, ministers, and activists are grappling with what, if anything, can be done to stop the shootings.
Many of those who have spent exasperating years seeking answers say there are no simple ways to prevent violence such as Friday’s fatal shooting of a 9-year-old boy by his 14-year-old brother in their Mattapan home, especially with a society and media awash in guns and bloodshed....
And war.
Emmett Folgert, executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, and others suggested the city’s new administration urge parents to search their children’s rooms for guns, start a hotline to make it easier for gang members to seek help, and press police to share information to enable residents to do more to root out potential sources of violence.
Related:
"Anthony M. Pledger, 26, and Miriam J. Kizzie, 21, are allegedly members of a Boston street gang named the Thetford Avenue Buffaloes, according to an affidavit written by Lina Awad, a special agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations. The gang wears Buffalo Bills and Texas Rangers gear to distinguish themselves and they associate with two nearby street gangs, the Rosewood Cardinals and Fabyan Falcons, Awad said. The Thetford Avenue Buffaloes are not thought to run a sex-trafficking operation, Awad wrote. Rather, Pledger and Kizzie are believed to have acted independently of the gang as a part of the alleged plot, she said."
Also see:
Boston man faces gun charges again
Guns recovered in Dorchester; 5 charged
Woman carried gun, drugs in diaper bag, police say
It was done out of love.
“Doesn’t this tell every parent to go toss apart their teenager’s room to see if there’s a gun in there?” Folgert said. “You have to hope that parents doublecheck to make sure there’s nothing dangerous in their house.”
Or check their Facebook.
The shooting sparked comparisons with the 2007 killing of Liquarry Jefferson , Jr., a first-grader shot by his 7-year-old cousin while they were playing with a 9mm handgun that an older cousin left inside a dresser in their apartment.
In that case, the victim’s 15-year-old half-brother, Jayquan McConnico, and mother, Lakeisha Gadson, were both prosecuted on charges that included some relating to allowing an illegal weapon to fall into the hands of children. Gadson was acquitted by a Suffolk Superior Court jury of the major charges she faced, while McConnico was sentenced to five years in the custody of the Department of Youth Services.
The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, cofounder of the TenPoint Coalition and director of the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester, said part of the frustration many feel is a result of the “never again” rhetoric that often follows gun violence.
“It soars beyond the possibility of reality when we hear ‘one child is one child too many’ or ‘this can’t happen again,’ ” he said Friday. “We are going to have homicides in the city. The question is not if, but how many.”
He called for a reevaluation of street worker outreach programs, diverting youth early, before they enter gangs, and intensifying collaboration between community organizations and law enforcement, which would increase intelligence sharing.
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said her office and federal agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives have been working with local authorities to trace the origins of illegal guns on city streets. She noted that a New Hampshire man, Sean Meola, 42, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Boston to 70 months in prison, as part of a gun-running investigation.
She said she recently spoke with Boston Police Commissioner William Evans about guns on the streets and offered help in getting the number down. “I think we’re trying to work as a team, and trying to figure out how to do that,” she said.
Residents need to do more to detect guns coming into their home and turn them in to police, Ortiz said. “You have to get the message out into the community that we share a sense of responsibility. The solution is not just law enforcement. The community has to be involved, do what they can, and cooperate with police.”
It's like the heroin thing, and just by coincidence the CIA also runs guns as well as drugs.
State Representative Russell Holmes, a Democrat who represents parts of Dorchester, said he has worked with Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley on a bill that aims to better track firearms used in shootings or found at crime scenes.
“It would put a unique stamp onto the firing pin of a weapon, so that any ballistics evidence would be matched to a specific gun and a specific transaction,’’ said Jake Wark, a spokesman for Conley.
See: High-tech guns could revolutionize firearms industry
It would be prohibitively expensive, but what's a $econd Amendment Right anyway?
But the Rev. William Dickerson, pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle Church in Dorchester, said legislation can only accomplish so much.
“This is a spiritual battle we’re fighting,” he said. “We need to teach children about the dangers of guns, and more importantly, to respect the human dignity of human life.”
As the government preaches war and slaughter in the name of peace!
The Rev. Bruce Wall, senior pastor of Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester, said he is sick of hearing of people claiming that someone broke into their house and stole their guns.
I wonder what nice entrepreneurial lads would deal guns.
“A lot of us feel frustrated, like we can’t do anything,” he said. “What we need is more information about people we believe are violating the law. We could publicize their phony claims and out them.”
That's the duty and public service of this blog, thank you.
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Maybe it is not all that much of a mistake after all.
Clergy in Boston make vital plea to end violence
Mothers press for answers after Mattapan death
Police, community groups meet on violence
Mayor taps pair to lead antiviolence initiative
This is the best they can come up with:
Bring back the gun buyback
Walsh says Boston will hold gun buyback
Walsh calls gun buyback ‘piece of the puzzle’
Success of gun buyback programs is debated
A statement, not a strategy
Boston police to launch new gun buyback
Boston launches citywide gun buyback program
Legislature must act on plan to tighten gun laws
Just in case you remain unconvinced of the need for the government to take your guns away, the Globe keeps waving the dead kid at you.
And is the timing of this next piece ever spooky:
"Panel urges new controls on guns in Mass.; Wider screening, better training in 44-point plan" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, February 03, 2014
A panel of specialists appointed after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre recommended Monday that Massachusetts toughen its gun laws by broadening background checks and giving police chiefs the power to prohibit potentially dangerous people from buying rifles and shotguns.
Looking more and more like that was a staged and scripted hoax much like the Marathon. I think you can bet the house on it.
The panel, commissioned by the House speaker, made 44 recommendations while acknowledging that the state already has among the strictest gun laws in the country. Nevertheless, the report includes a wide range of suggestions, from enrolling Massachusetts in a national mental health database for screening potential gun buyers to beefing up gun safety courses.
Commission members said they wanted to focus on ideas that are backed by academic research and that are politically viable. As such, their report rejected some controversial gun-control measures, including one long sought by Governor Deval Patrick that would limit firearm purchases to one a month.
Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said the findings would help lawmakers craft a bill that could pass before July, when the House and Senate conclude major business.
“The members, both pro and con, are ready for it,” DeLeo said. “I think this will be the year.”
But it is not clear that the report will help break the opposition that has stymied recent gun-control measures on Beacon Hill.
I'm wondering what massive operation, scripted and staged or otherwise, is in the works. It's too quiet out there.
The Gun Owners Action League, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, said the commission all but ignored the group’s voice in assembling the recommendations and said the report is “not worth the paper it’s printed on.”
Patrick had a mixed reaction to the findings....
The report urged Massachusetts to join the National Instant Background Check System, a federal database that would allow police chiefs to screen out potential gun buyers who have been found by a court to be mentally ill. Massachusetts is one of the few states that is not enrolled in that database.
Also see: Domestic violence gun law is upheld
The panel members said they also learned that current law gives too much discretion to police chiefs to deny gun licenses to “unsuitable persons,” so they recommended that the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association help develop a tighter definition for that term.
For the most part, police chiefs invoke the “unsuitable persons’’ language to deny licenses for handguns. The panel recommended that police chiefs be allowed to apply that standard to buyers of rifles and shotguns, who are exempt.
That change would allow police chiefs to prohibit people who have been arrested, but not convicted, of a crime from buying a rifle.
The study also sought to improve gun safety....
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Time to lockdown this post.
"No decrease in school shootings after Newtown" by Kimberly Hefling | Associated Press, February 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — ‘‘Lockdown’’ is now part of the school vocabulary.
Related:
Child playing with an Airsoft rifle causes stir near State House
Youths with airsoft gun cause lockdown
Maine bill would ban replica guns in schools
They will give you a real one when you join the military.
Analysts say the rate of school shootings is statistically unchanged since the mid- to late-1990s, yet still remains troubling....
The numbers don’t include a string of recent shootings at colleges and universities. Just last week, a man was shot and critically wounded at the Palm Bay Campus of Eastern Florida State College, police said.
Related: Arm the Campus Cops
Finding factors to blame, rightfully or not, is almost the easy part: lack of parenting, easy access to guns, less value for the sanctity of life, violent video games.
Stopping the violence isn’t....
The shooters are males confronting hopelessness.
Profiling prejudice?
‘‘You see troubled young men who are desperate and they strike out and they don’t see that they have any hope,’’ Bond said.
The recent budget deal in Congress provides $140 million to support safe school environments, and is a $29 million increase, according to the office of Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, a Democrat who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
You know, the budget deal that made Wall Street happy and the Pentagon whole.
Related: Securing All Schools
They always felt like prison.
About 90 percent of districts have tightened security since the Newtown shootings, estimates Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Student with bullets prompts Conn. school lockdown
Kid must have been high from the cookie.
And the nation with the strictest gun-control measures in the country?
"The city led the nation in homicides in 2012 with more than 500. It ended 2013 with 415 homicides — the lowest total in nearly half a century but still far more than any other US city."
That is a success to be crowed about?
JWho is mayor there, anyway?
Ever wonder if our leaders are mentally ill?
