BOSTON (WHDH) - A visibly upset Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross stressed that violent criminals should remain in jail amid the coronavirus pandemic after a triple shooting in Roxbury left one person dead late Sunday night.
Neither the police department or the District Attorney’s office confirmed the recent release of prisoners played a part in the triple shooting, but Gross said it created “the wrong mentality.”
“People who have been locked up for violent offenses and carrying a firearm should not be released on personals, and I could care less about if they get sick in jail or not,” Gross said at a press conference at the crime scene. “They are a danger to the community and you’re setting the wrong mentality.”
Officers responding to a report of shots fired on Kensington Park just after 10:30 p.m. found three men suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, according to Gross.
They were taken to area hospitals, where one of the victims died. His name has not been released.
The two remaining victims’ injuries are considered life-threatening at this time, police said. Dorcas Jackson said her 27-year-old son Trae is recovering in a hospital after being shot — exactly seven years to the day her older son was shot and killed in the same community.
Gross praised residents for quickly calling police.
“I’d just like to thank the people in the community that called 9-1-1,” Gross said. “That allowed us to respond to here in such a timely manner that we probably saved the other two gentlemen’s lives.”
The police commissioner added that crimes like this should not be tolerated, saying that letting people out of jail because of COVID-19 has given criminals the wrong idea.
“Everybody has to be held accountable. In two months, we’ve had career criminals released. One guy was arrested for OUI, carrying a firearm, discharged the firearm, put on a bracelet, and while on a bracelet committed a murder. Judge Roach let him go,” Gross explained. “Just last week, a known gang member, carrying a firearm, firing a firearm, home invasion, released. When you do things like that, it sets a mentality out in these streets that people can do what they want.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who has asked for nonviolent offenders to be released amid the outbreak, said that officials have seen an uptick in gun violence.
“We are in a global pandemic. People need to be sheltering in place, essentially, and they aren’t complying,” she said.
Rollins added that those who commit crimes will be sent to jail.
“You are going to be sent to a place, where unfortunately you are going to be at a higher risk, potentially, of contracting COVID-19,” she said, “and nobody wants you harmed there, but you will not be able to remain outside in the community. We will hold you accountable and send you away.”
Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470 or leave an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-494-TIPS.
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