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Two Suspects Arrested In Shooting of Boston Teen

Two suspects will be arraigned on first-degree murder charges Tuesday morning in connection with the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy in Dorchester on Sunday night, marking the second time in a month that a Boston teenager was shot and killed on a city street.

At a news conference Monday, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said an officer in an unmarked cruiser witnessed the shooting around 8 p.m. as he turned his car around to keep an eye on two men who he suspected were about to rob someone.

As officer Anthony Williams approached, one of the men ran up to a scooter passing by on the street, pulled a teenager off of the scooter, and held him while the second man shot the boy in the chest multiple times. The victim, Nicholas Fomby-Davis, was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

"Two groups of kids that actually should be playing baseball and football together instead are engaged in this back-and-forth violence."-- Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis

After Williams radioed for assistance and was joined by two officers from a Boston Police "Safe Street Team," which had been deployed to the intersection of Olney and Bowdoin Streets because of past violence, the two suspects were arrested nearby.

One of the suspects has been identified as Crisostomo Lopes, 20, of Dorchester. The other suspect has not been named and is identified only as a 16-year-old male juvenile, also from Dorchester.

Both suspects are being held without bail and are part of a gang that has been involved in ongoing violence in the same Bowdoin Street neighborhood for years, according to Boston Police.

Fomby-Davis had no criminal record and is not believed to have been involved in gang activity, Davis said. But both suspects are known to Boston police and one has a "significant" criminal record involving firearms, he added.

Davis said Boston Police command staff and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino met to discuss the shooting and plan to crack down on the gang involved. Davis declined to name the gang.

"But I will tell you that the Boston Police Department will be responding appropriately, not only to the individuals who are responsible for the homicide, but to their accomplices and acquaintance in the gang," he said.

"We want to send a very clear message to these criminal communities that this is not acceptable in the city of Boston," Davis added, "and that when someone picks up a firearm and commits this kind of a heinous attack on a young man in our city, that there will be a coordinated and sustained response involving all of the individuals who are associated."

Davis also noted that the Boston Police Department has "extensive information on gangs of young people who have decided to enter into a lifestyle where violence is the way to achieve status in the group, and that's where we need help from the public."

"How many dead bodies on the street do we need for you to say that we're in crisis?... In Newton, Wellesley they would not wait for 10 or 15 people to die to say, 'We have a problem.' " — Pastor Bruce Wall

"We need to have the public stand up and say, 'This is wrong,' " he continued, "and that two groups of kids that actually should be playing baseball and football together instead are engaged in this back-and-forth violence that serves no purpose and ends simply in tragedy."

Davis said Boston Police do not know at this point if Fomby-Davis knew his alleged attackers.

Anyone with information about the shooting can call the Boston Police homicide unit at 617-343-4470 or anonymously call the BPD's CrimeStoppers tip line at 800-494-TIPS. Boston Police also accept tips by text: simply text "TIP" to 27463 and include your tip.

In Dorchester's Codman Square, Pastor Bruce Wall, of Global Ministries Christian Church, says the death of Fomby-Davis is mounting evidence that Boston needs a new approach to reducing urban violence.

"My question to the city is: How many dead bodies on the street do we need for you to say that we're in crisis? Is it 100? Do we need to go up to 200?" Wall asked. "In Newton, Wellesley they would not wait for 10 or 15 people to die to say, 'We have a problem.' "

Wall says a specialist in urban violence should work with Boston's mayor, police and pastors to develop a comprehensive plan to fight youth violence.

This program aired on May 31, 2010. The audio for this program is not available.

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Sacha Pfeiffer Host, All Things Considered
Sacha Pfeiffer was formerly the host of WBUR's All Things Considered.

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