Man shot on Dorchester street Saturday night dies
A 40-year-old man shot on a street near the Roxbury-Dorchester line yesterday was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center last night, Boston Police said today.
At about 9:45 p.m. yesterday, officers responded to the area of 21 Nazing St., where they found the man suffering life-threatening injuries “from what appeared to be a gunshot wound,’’ according to a police statement. He was pronounced dead at the hospital last night, authorities said.
Mourners, including friends and area residents, stood before a memorial site this evening at the spot where the victim was found by police last night. Flowers, stuffed animals, candles and bottles of liquor were placed on the sidewalk between 21 and 19 Nazing St.
While police could not confirm the victim’s name, he was identified as Charles Webb by his fiancée, 23-year-old Asia James, and his nephew, Develle Webb, 21,.
“I came. He died instantly from one gunshot to the chest,’’ James said, crying and pausing to compose herself as she stood among a small crowd near the memorial. “I ran down here to get to him. I couldn’t get here fast enough.’’
James said Webb had picked up her 4-year-old son from a birthday party nearby last night. Webb, who lived in Brockton according to his nephew, then dropped off the young boy at a home on Nazing Street where James lives and where Webb was often a guest. Webb, who was unemployed but most recently worked as a fitness trainer, walked to a nearby store to pick up some basic household items, she said.
As he walked back from the store, Webb called her on his cell phone, she said,
“He told me to open up the door, that he was walking up the street and that’s when we heard the gunshots,’’ James said.
She said she heard three shots. Several moments later she went outside, where she found the man she has been dating for three-and-a-half years and became engaged to last summer. He was lying on the ground, “bleeding from his chest and mouth,’’ she said.
James said emergency medical responders pronounced Webb dead at the scene.
She said she does not why anyone would have shot Webb or who might have done it.
“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time,’’ James said. “I just want anyone who has seen anything to speak out.’’
“He was a family man. He was trying to get his life together,’’ she said, smiling briefly as she recalled: “He loved apples, Heineken and chicken.’’
Webb had four children.
“His kids didn’t deserve this, and I didn’t deserve this,’’ she added later.
A 45-year-old Grove Hall resident, who declined to give his name, said he was a childhood friend of Webb’s.
“He was a funny guy. A good man. Everybody knew him. He wasn’t in any gang activity or any of that,’’ the man said. “This was just senseless.’’
No further details on the fatal shooting were immediately available this evening, police spokesman Officer James Keneally said.
Police had originally reported that the address of the shooting was in Dorchester. 21 Nazing St. is in Roxbury, near the Dorchester line, according to the Boston city website.
Last night, police blocked off Nazing Street from Blue Hill Avenue to Maple Street as they searched for a possible suspect, whom they described as having average height, thin build, and dark skin, and as wearing all-black clothes with some red showing around the collar.
Keneally could not confirm today whether police are still searching for a person fitting that description. The death is being investigated by the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Anyone with information can contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at (617) 343-4470, police said. Anonymous information can be provided to police via the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word ‘TIP’ to CRIME (27463).
