By John Lynds
As Shore Plaza undergoes a multi-million dollar face lift, a resident at the housing development is saying a little paint and new windows isn’t going to solve the incidences of violence.
Jennifer Gore-Cartagena posted Facebook pictures of the injuries she sustained during a melee she said was caused by a group of suspected male gang members.
Gore-Cartagena said she and her children, ages 11 and 13, were watching kids play outside their Shore Plaza home and listening to music, when a dirty look turned into words that resulted in fists flying.
“I knew I was hit multiple times. I’m assuming I just kept getting up and I felt like I was being hit left right, left right,” Gore-Cartagena told news reporters. “I have multiple fractures across my face I have cuts on my knees.”
Gore-Cartagena was knocked unconscious during the assault. Her two kids were also knocked to ground by what was reported to be grown men.
“I see the one in the red hooded sweatshirt he had a knife, and he was going to stab my granddaughter in the head and I’m like are ‘you [expletive] kidding me? I said someone please help, someone call the police,” Gore-Cartagena’s mother Irene Gore told news reporters.
Gore-Cartagena said this kind of trouble and gang activity is nothing new to Shore Plaza and police said they plan to reach out to the management company as a partner to help curtail gang activity at the housing development.
Police said they were called to Shore Plaza earlier in the day for a fight between a teen at the development and a group of other teens that also live there.
The victim of the first assault, who lives in Shore Plaza but spends much of her time in Chelsea, returned with male friends to settle the score. It seems Gore-Cartagena and her family got caught up in a beef they may have had nothing to do with in the first place.
“What happened to an East Boston mom and her children is a parent’s worst nightmare — attacked and assaulted for simply bringing our kids to the park — what should be a safe haven for any family across Boston,” said Keri Rodrigues, executive director of Massachusetts Parents United. “Parents in East Boston and in neighborhoods across the Commonwealth have the right to expect that their neighborhood parks are a safe place to bring their children without the threat of gang violence for simply watching our kids play basketball. Massachusetts Parents United – East Boston is calling on Mayor Walsh and our friends at the Boston Police Department to step up patrols at our neighborhood parks so that families across our community can feel safe enjoying these spaces without fear.”