A man was fatally shot early Saturday morning in a heavily student-populated Allston neighborhood, and police responded to a second shooting Saturday morning near a Cambridge club frequented by young people, according to reports.
Boston police responded to a shooting near the intersection of Linden Street and Farrington Avenue shortly after 2 a.m., and found a 25-year-old man, who had been apparently shot through a window, in a car’s rear passenger seat. The man was taken to Beth Israel Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
A second shooting occurred near Central Square in Cambridge at the Hi-Fi Pizza shop around 2:50 a.m. Saturday, according to a Cambridge Chronicle article. Police arrested a man with a gun, but have not found the reported victim of the shooting at the restaurant, which is located near the Middle East night club.
The Allston incident has been referred to the homicide division of the Boston Police Department, and police are actively investigating the shooting, though they do not yet have a suspect, BPD spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.
“We investigate any and all kinds of shootings, especially when they result in death,” he said.
No homicides occurred in the Boston police district that includes Allston in 2007, and two occurred in both 2006 and 2005, according to BPD statistics.
Boston University police responded to the scene to assist BPD officers Saturday morning, said BU Police Department Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire. BUPD will be increasing patrols of the area because it is densely populated by students, he said.
“It’s within the area we’re concerned with, and we’re looking at the recent trend in violent crime,” St. Hilaire said.
Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore had no comment on the shooting when reached by phone last night.
College of General Studies freshman Joss Poulton said he walked past squad cars and police who were investigating the area Saturday morning. The shooting victim was found on Linden Street between Pratt and Ashford streets.
“We basically walked out onto the crime scene,” Poulton said. He was leaving a friend’s apartment, located less than a block from where the shooting occurred, around 2:10 a.m. he said.
Poulton said it is “particularly odd” that BU has not notified students of the homicide, “especially since they didn’t catch the shooter.”
“It’s kind of scary and brings it closer to home that someone died when we were out partying,” he said. The shooting is “a big reminder that it’s probably not the safest area. I’m definitely going to be more careful,” he added.
Jonathan Beck, a College of Communication senior and president of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity whose house is in Allston, said the shooting was “a scary situation” because he had walked past the spot about 10 minutes before it occurred.
“I think that this shooting, combined with the stabbings in January, should be a wake up call that Allston needs to improve safety,” he said. “Allston is a dangerous city and something needs to be done so that people feel safe living there.”
Police responded to the stabbing of three people at the intersection of Linden and Pratt streets around 3:30 a.m. Jan. 12, according to BU police logs.
Harry Mattison, an Allston resident who writes for the Allston-Brighton Community Blog, called the Saturday shooting “obviously terrible and scary and the last thing that people want to see happen in the neighborhood where they live.”
He said residents would have to wait for investigation results to understand why the shooting occurred, but said it did not necessarily signal an upward trend in crime.
“During regular hours, for most of us, it’s a relatively safe neighborhood,” he said.
The Cambridge shooting occurred as restaurants and clubs in the night-life filled Central Square were closing. A police officer on foot patrol on Massachusetts Avenue heard gunshots coming from the restaurant and stopped Manuel Goncolves, a 23-year-old Brockton resident, as he walked out of Hi-Fi Pizza with a gun in his hand, according to the Chronicle article.
Witnesses said they saw a man who had been shot get into a car and drive away from the scene. Goncolves was charged with illegal possession of a firearm, but police have yet to identify the victim, the Chronicle reported.
COM sophomore Rachel Richmond said she goes to the Middle East about once a month, and has been there both in the afternoon and late at night, and has been to Hi-Fi Pizza.
“To be honest, there definitely have been times where it is really late and I am getting out of a concert and it feels kind of sketchy and unsafe,” she said. Richmond said the shooting was a shock and said she will try to take precautions when getting out of late shows.
She said she would “keep in mind all of the little bits of advice my parents told me before I went off to school, definitely give those a once over before I go out.”
Staff reporters Marlesse Marino and Rachel Leamon contributed reporting for this article.
