Boston

‘Stop Blaming the Police': Mayor Reacts to Fourth of July Violence

"It's time for the kids that are active in the game out in the neighborhood to step up, man up, and start to take responsibility for who they are and nevermind this coward's way out of shooting each other and not telling anybody," Marty Walsh said

What to Know

  • One person was killed and four others injured in two separate shootings in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood on the Fourth of July.
  • The first shooting on Fayston Street, yards away from a party where dozens of children were outside playing in a bouncy house.
  • Mayor Marty Walsh out spoke out Thursday, criticizing the shooting victims for their reluctance to help police catch the perpetrators.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spoke out Thursday about the Fourth of July shootings that left one person dead and four others injured, telling people to "stop blaming the police" and saying the shooting victims need to "man up" and help police catch those responsible for the violence.

"Last night, I think we had four or five people shot," Walsh said. "The thing that's frustrating about it, not one of them are talking. No one wants to say anything. You didn't see anything? You got shot and you didn't see anything?

"The people that got shot, you need to step up and talk about who shot you and stop blaming the police and blaming the community and blaming society," he continued. "If you got shot by a gun and you know who it is, then you need to help us out."

Both of Wednesday's shootings were in the city's Dorchester neighborhood.

A man in his 30s was killed in a shooting near Brookford and Dacia streets around 10 p.m.

Four other men ranging in age from 22 to mid-40s were injured in a separate shooting around 7 p.m. on Fayston Street. All are expected to survive.

No arrests have been made in connection with either shooting.

"It's time for the kids that are active in the game out in the neighborhood to step up, man up, and start to take responsibility for who they are and nevermind this coward's way out of shooting each other and not telling anybody," Walsh said. "If somebody shoots you, you gotta talk about who shot you, if you can, unless you're dead, and then if you're dead you can't say who shot you because you're not here to talk about it, and then that's a real problem."

The first shooting on Fayston Street occurred after an argument broke out, just yards away from a party where dozens of children were outside playing in a bouncy house.

"What bothered me most was that there were young kids in the neighborhood, they were little ones, little babies," Walsh said. "They don't know what's going on. They're out to have fun. To have a couple cowards roll in with guns and think they're tough guys and shooting each other, you could've done some real harm to some little kids out here yesterday, and some innocent people.

"You are going to hurt somebody else," he said. "If you want to kill each other - it's a horrible thing, and I don't want to stand here as mayor and say, you know, we're justifying that - you kill each other. But what happens is you kill an innocent person and you disrupt a whole community, and you send the wrong message to young people and you send the wrong message to children in the neighborhood who want to enjoy the fireworks."

As of June 30, there had been 78 total shootings so far this year in Boston, down from 101 at this time in 2017. However, fatal shootings had risen from 14 to 19.

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