BOSTON (WHDH) - Three people have now been arrested and charged in connection with a shooting at a Fourth of July party in Mattapan that sent five people to local hospitals early Wednesday morning, police said.
Boston police said officers first responded around 2 a.m. following a report of multiple people shot in the area of Edgewater Drive and River Street.
Police said three people were later taken to hospitals by ambulance while two others took themselves to hospitals. Each of the victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Boston police in a statement Wednesday afternoon said they found a car trying to leave the scene when they pulled up. Police said they recovered a gun from the car and another gun ditched nearby.
7NEWS cameras were also rolling as detectives said they found a third gun in a box on the ground.
Several evidence markers were seen littered through a mass of fireworks left on the ground near the site of the shooting on Wednesday morning.
Speaking with 7NEWS, people who live nearby said the whole community annually gets together on the Fourth of July to celebrate with fireworks.
“We do this every year and it’s always great,” said Luz Cosme. “Everybody has fun. There’s no really big issues.”
As the police investigation continued, others in the area shared their reactions.
“On the Fourth of July? Come on man, when everybody is trying to enjoy themselves,” said Winfield Russell. “It’s so sad.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu also discussed the incident, saying she is disappointed by the violence but glad officers were able to get some guns off the street.
“It’s summer,” she said. “We want everyone to have fun, come together, enjoy each other’s company, but it has to be safe for everyone in the community.”
“Our police officers are continuing to follow the leads in that investigation and I expect that we will see accountability for those individuals involved,” she continued.
The three suspects arrested in the case — two men and a woman — were arraigned on Wednesday on gun-related charges but did not show their faces in court.
The woman’s attorney argued his client was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What we have here essentially is an individual who was running away from where a bunch of shots were fired,” the attorney said. “She doesn’t have her shoes on right now because she had to leave her shoes behind. She runs to a car. She ends up in a car.”
The three suspects are all in their 20s. The two men were denied bail by a judge and were being held pending a dangerousness hearing as of Wednesday night.
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