BOSTON (WHDH) - Police have launched an investigation into a deadly daylight shooting in Mattapan on Thursday morning leaving the community and local officials equally frustrated.
Officers responding to a reported shooting in the area of Hazleton Street and Blue Hill Avenue just after 9 a.m. found a man in his mid-20s shot to death in the driveway of a tire shop, according to authorities.
“It has to stop. Its crazy,” Peter Papadogiannis of nearby Boulevard Cleaners & Tailors said.
Papadogiannis has worked on the block since 1981 and owns the property across the street where this tire shop operates.
“Things should be getting better instead of worse but to me it looks like its getting worse,” he said.
Witnesses told police that another person was seen running from the scene, though their connection with the shooting has not been made clear.
Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross says this kind of violence is never OK but that it is especially concerning considering the time of day that it happened.
“We’re very disheartened at this uptick in violence but as I’ve said before, it’s going to take the work of Boston police, the DA, and it’s going to be the community,” he said. “It’s going to be up to us, folks, to help make sure that people that commit acts of violence are held accountable and held in jail. We are not giving up on our city.”
The city’s police commissioner the violence stems from inmates being released in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus in jails.
Gross added that it’s time to stop second-guessing police and to work with them to end the violence.
Mattapan resident, Royce White, agrees.
These guys who clearly just live to commit crimes are being let free to do the same thing over and over again because there are no consequences,” he said.
This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.
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