BOSTON (WHDH) - Police are calling on community members to come forward with tips as they investigate a brazen daylight triple shooting in Mattapan that left one man dead and two others injured.
Boston police officers responding to a report of shots fired on Deering Road around 9:38 a.m. Tuesday found three men in their late 20s suffering from gunshot wounds, one of whom was pronounced dead at the scene, Police Commissioner William G. Gross said.
The other two victims were rushed to a nearby hospital with what were considered non-life-threatening injuries.
The victims’ names have not been released. Gross said investigators believe the three men were shot while sitting in a car.
Gross, who blasted the daylight shooting in a densely populated neighborhood as “unacceptable,” said the incident doesn’t appear to be random and stressed that the judicial system “needs to be held accountable” for putting dangerous criminals back on the streets with stay away orders or GPS monitoring bracelets.
“Cold hard facts, there are too many guns on the streets,” Gross said, adding, “Anybody that commits senseless acts of violence and shootings, they have to be arrested, that’s it. If they can’t be rehabilitated … they need to be locked up. We are sick and tired of when we make an arrest … it’s someone’s third or fourth firearms arrest.”
When asked to expand on his criticism of judges issuing violent criminals stay away orders and ordering them to wear ankle bracelets, Gross said that approach simply doesn’t work.
“Three officers dead, several other people dead, yes, judges have to be more accountable,” Gross said. “If we’re all supposed to be held accountable, then let’s all be accountable … Everybody in the village has to be held accountable, I’m not afraid to say that.”
Gross said he didn’t think Tuesday’s incident was related to a shooting in the neighborhood over the weekend that left a Boston Public Works employee dead.
Investigators are asking anyone who may have seen or heard something to call homicide detectives at 617-343-4470.
“It does work when people come forward and help us out,” Gross said. “We’re looking for video, we’re looking for witnesses, anything that can help the investigation.”
A woman who asked not to be identified said she gave the victims towels to stop the bleeding until paramedics arrived.
“I gave them towels and made tourniquets and made them raised, kept them calm, talked to them, gave them my name, asked them theirs, and did what I’m supposed to do,” she said. “I don’t want to keep on seeing kids drop. I’ve lost too much family to these streets.”
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