An isolated shooting that went largely unnoticed in East Boston had elderly residents living in the Barnes School on edge.
The shooting, which occurred on Sunday, September 2 at the corner of Marion and Saratoga Streets in front of the Barnes, involved two men that knew one another and could have had a prior disagreement over drugs.
While the shooting was not random and seems to have been isolated it did not stop residents at the Barnes to make dozens of phone calls to Representative Carlo Basile’s office looking for answers.
Last Wednesday, Basile joined District 7 Captain Kelley McCormick to discuss the incident and ease fears in the senior housing complex.
McCormick committed to putting more patrols in the area and even offered to have a uniformed beat officer stop by the Barnes once a day to check on residents and make sure things were going smoothly.
At the meeting residents said while they understood the shooting to be isolated and that police were doing a good job investigating the incident, there were other incidents in the past that were calls for concern.
One resident said that the building manager has implemented a 9:30 p.m. curfew for the building at which time the doors lock and no visitors are allowed inside.
This, explained one resident, was because people had been coming into the building that had no business being there.
McCormick said he’d work with the building’s management to ensure that if problems like this should arise in the future the police could be on top of the issue and respond accordingly.
According to police reports, she shooting occurred on Sunday, Sept. 2 at 9 p.m. McCormick said officers responded to a call about a person shot at the intersection in front of the Barnes. The 18-year-old victim said he thought he had been shot but was unsure. Officers observed a bloodstain on his shirt and called for EMS. The victim was taken to Mass General where he was treated and released for non-life-threatening injuries.
While the victim would not identify his attacker, police believe the two had a prior past and a prior dispute that could have involved drugs.