Boston

Fatal Brighton Shooting Brings Open Criminal Homicide Cases for June to Five

The shooting deaths of two men in their 20s in Brighton this weekend has brought the number of open criminal homicide cases for the month of June to a total of five.

The men were killed in a shooting shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday just outside the Oak Square neighborhood. Their deaths came as a surprise to Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans.

“This area came a long way and had been good for a while so this is just a complete shock,” he said.

He attributes some of the summer's typical rise in crime to the rise in temperatures.

“I hate when the forecasters say it’s going to be great weather, because believe it or not, when a lot of people are out we worry about people getting hurt,” he said.

Residents were equally as surprised to see police on the scene from about 1 a.m. to 7 p.m., with investigators focusing their attention on a Jeep and a pickup truck parked on opposite sides of Faneuil Street.

“I had to get escorted to my apartment because they wouldn’t let me over," said one resident. "This whole part was covered and I couldn’t go anywhere so I had to go around the back way.”

The death investigations from June include a shooting in Roxbury, a Brighton hit-and-run crash and an East Boston shooting on the first of the month.

“Last June, we had, I think, 34 people shot," said Commissioner Evans. "We’ve had 17 so far. We had a triple the other night. Not that 17 is good, but we’ve almost cut the shootings in half from where we were last year," he said.

In 2018, the city reports a total of 26 homicides to date, as opposed to 21 this time last year.

The victims in that triple shooting in Dorchester Wednesday evening recovered and were listed in stable condition.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there were eight homicides in June. The actual number is five.

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