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Boston cops nab repeat offender, 21, in the 17-casing Dorchester gun battle that hospitalized a man and riddled two houses with bullets

Saturday, May 23, 2026
3 min read
MDN Staff
Boston cops nab repeat offender, 21, in the 17-casing Dorchester gun battle that hospitalized a man and riddled two houses with bullets

Chivaugn Nettles, 21, faces seven charges including two second-offense gun raps after detectives traced the 1:20am Dorchester gunfire back to a Huntington Avenue door

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DORCHESTER — Bullets shredded a Dacia Street block in the early-morning hours of May 13, peppering houses and a parked car, and putting a man in the hospital. Nine days later, Boston cops walked the alleged shooter out of a Huntington Avenue doorway without a fight.
Chivaugn Nettles, 21, of Boston, was arrested Friday by the Boston Police Fugitive Unit and now faces seven charges, according to Boston Police.
ShotSpotter lit up just after 1:20am on May 13, picking up multiple rounds across two locations near 25 Dacia Street. By the time District B-2 officers rolled up, the damage was on full display: ballistic holes in multiple residences, a parked car shot up, and shell casings scattered across the scene. Somewhere in the chaos, a man caught a bullet — he was rushed to a local hospital and treated for what police called "serious, but non-life-threatening" injuries.
MDN covered the shooting live and posted the surveillance footage on X — showing three men spraying gunfire next to a parked car, and what appeared to be one of the shooters being hit by his own accomplice's rounds and hopping away.

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Then came nine days of detective work. Surveillance footage. A search warrant on a suspect vehicle. A search warrant on a Huntington Avenue residence. Physical evidence collected and processed. By the time the Fugitive Unit knocked on Nettles' door on Friday, the case was wrapped tight. He went quietly.
He is expected to be arraigned in Roxbury District Court on:
  • Unlawful possession of a firearm, second offense
  • Carrying a loaded firearm without a license, second offense
  • Assault and battery by discharge of a firearm
  • Assault with a dangerous weapon (two counts)
  • Discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building
  • Unlawful possession of ammunition, subsequent offense
Two of those charges are tagged "second offense" — an enhancement that, under Massachusetts law, requires a prior conviction for the same offense. Translation: prosecutors say he's been here before.
This isn't the 21-year-old's first Boston cop encounter. In March 2023, District C-11 officers and the Youth Violence Strike Force pulled a loaded ACP Baikal out of his waistband at Sumner Square in Uphams Corner — one round in the chamber, five in the magazine. He was 18. Eleven months later, court records show he was arrested again — for a public brawl at the same Huntington Avenue door Boston cops walked him out of on Friday.

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