BOSTON — Gunfire erupted at Boston's Puerto Rican Festival in Roxbury on Saturday evening as a 15-year-old with a loaded revolver fired multiple shots into the air near the Giraffe Entrance of Franklin Park, sent the crowd dispersing, then locked eyes with responding officers, fired an additional round in their direction, and fled toward Seaver Street before Boston Police caught up with him, took him to the ground in a brief struggle, and recovered his revolver from where it fell out of his waistband.
The shooting began at approximately 7:49 p.m. near the park's Giraffe Entrance on Playstead Road, according to a statement released Sunday morning by Boston Police. Officers assigned to District B-2 (Roxbury) — already on directed patrol at the festival — heard the gunshots from inside the park, watched the suspect flee grabbing his waistband and looking back, and caught up with him in the area of 168 Seaver Street.
Recovered from the suspect: an I.J. Target Sealed 8 revolver with four spent casings and three live rounds still in the cylinder. Four shots had been fired. Three more were loaded and ready.
The scene
The Puerto Rican Festival is one of Boston's oldest and largest cultural celebrations, drawing families to Franklin Park every summer for music, food, and parades. On Saturday evening, per Boston Police's release, the 15-year-old emerged from the bushes near the Giraffe Entrance with a loaded revolver in his waistband.
Then he raised it and started firing.
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No festival-goers were struck. According to Boston Police's own account, the sequence unfolded fast. The suspect fired several shots into the air near the Giraffe Entrance. As officers converged, he made eye contact with them, fired an additional round in their direction, and turned to run. He fled toward Seaver Street. Officers caught up with him there. During a brief struggle in which the suspect kept clutching the front of his waistband, the revolver fell out. Three live rounds were still in the cylinder.
The charges
The teenager, whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile under Massachusetts law, has been charged with:
- Carrying a Loaded Firearm without a License
- Four counts of Discharging a Firearm within 500 Feet of a Building
- Unlawful Possession of a Firearm
- Possession of Ammunition without an FID Card
- Resisting Arrest
The "500 feet of a building" statute is the technical charge Massachusetts uses to describe firing a gun in a densely populated area. Four counts means four shots inside that radius. In this case, that radius contained a family festival. Boston Police did not, in the release announcing the arrest, add a charge for firing at officers, but the release does describe the sequence in which the suspect fired an additional round after making eye contact with them. The Juvenile Court arraignment will be the first place the charging picture can be updated.
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What Boston Police say
Boston Police District B-2, which covers Roxbury, confirmed the arrest in a press release Sunday. No injuries were reported. No motive has been publicly identified. The revolver has been taken into evidence. The suspect is expected to be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court.
The name of the 15-year-old will not be released. What Boston Police did release, and what the crime lab will now process, is a fired revolver that a 15-year-old brought to a family Puerto Rican festival, discharged into the air near the Giraffe Entrance, discharged one more round in the direction of responding officers, and lost during the scuffle at Seaver Street when it fell out of his waistband.
The mayor's message
None of this sits comfortably next to Mayor Michelle Wu's most repeated line about her city. Wu has spent the past year telling reporters, national audiences on The Daily Show, and every out-of-town interviewer within reach that Boston is "the safest big city in America" — a claim GBH News reviewed in December and found didn't hold up against the actual per-capita numbers. That line — repeated at press events, national interviews, and city budget rollouts — did not come with a ready caveat for a 15-year-old with a loaded revolver opening fire at Boston's Puerto Rican festival on Saturday night.
Boston Police caught him before anyone was killed.
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