Witnesses Stunned As Teen Shot, 7-year-old Hurt in Brockton

The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
'Insane' violence shakes city
By Maria Papadopoulos
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
BROCKTON — Lisa Hanlon heard six gunshots near the James Edgar Playground on Winthrop Street around dinnertime Wednesday and thought they were firecrackers.
Moments later, after loud screams echoed outside, she would join several neighbors trying to stop the bleeding on an 18-year-old male shot multiple times and lying on a porch at 141 Winthrop St., across the street from the playground.
"The chest was the one (wound) that was bleeding the most," said Hanlon, 39, a health care worker. "I just told them to keep talking to him, because he was fading in and out of consciousness, and to hold pressure to where the gun wounds were."
The 18-year-old, whose name was not released Wednesday night, was in critical condition and undergoing surgery Wednesday night at a local hospital following the 6:07 p.m. shooting, police said. He was shot multiple times in the leg and chest area, witnesses said.
A 7-year-old boy, whose name was also not released Wednesday night, suffered non-life-threatening injuries near his eye, police said.
"He might have caught a piece of bullet fragment," said Lt. Tom LaFratta.
Wednesday's brazen daytime shooting happened less that five days after a 17-year-old was shot dead in Brockton.
Jose Gurley, 17, was gunned down early Saturday morning at Roosevelt Heights, a city-owned housing complex on Brockton's North Side. He was the third teen to be shot dead in Brockton in the past two months. No arrests have been made in that shooting, police said.
On Winthrop Street, witnesses said a car was driving by when they heard gunshots. Police recovered a handgun in bushes on nearby West Harvard Street shortly after the shooting.
No suspects had been identified by 11 p.m. Wednesday.
City residents came out of their homes to see a state police helicopter hovering over West Elm Street and Belmont Avenue shortly after the shooting looking for the suspect or suspects.
Dozens of youths and parents filled Winthrop Street near the crime scene Wednesday as state and Brockton police recovered evidence behind yellow police tape. A boys' bicycle was among evidence taken from the scene. Five shell casings were found, police said.
"It sickens me that these kids are shooting each other," said Ward 2 City Councilor Michael Brady, in whose ward the shooting happened, at the scene.
"What's going on in Brockton is just insane," Hanlon said. "There are enough shootings right now that's going on. It's insane."
Brockton Police Chief William Conlon, who responded to Wednesday's crime scene, said gun violence in the city "is an ongoing problem."
"There's just far too many guns out there, too easily accessible," Conlon said. "We're doing all that we can to try to put a crimp in that."
He said police are working with several agencies, including the state police, to help curb gun violence.
"Those are the types of issues that we're up against every day," said Conlon, who urged more witnesses to come forward to help solve cases.
"People have to start telling us some things," Conlon said. "Protect your family members. Don't let them be carrying guns because they're going to be used against them or they'll be using them on somebody else's family that then retaliates."
"It's just an endless cycle of violence if somebody doesn't say 'Enough is enough' and put a stop to it," Conlon said.
The historic James Edgar Playground on the city's West Side was where boxing champion Rocky Marciano once played baseball. Marciano grew up on Dover Street, across from the playground and Winthrop Street.
Casimiro Gomes, a neighborhood resident, came home from work Wednesday to find Winthrop Street flooded with state and Brockton police.
"It makes me cry every day," said Gomes, a 51-year-old father of four, of the recent shootings involving city youth. "I pray to God to help us. There's too much pain."