Shooting of teen yields heroin-dealing charges

A teenage girl is facing heroin trafficking charges after a 14-year-old boy was shot in the head in a squalid Lowell apartment Tuesday, an incident a police supervisor is calling a “black eye to the neighborhood” as officials ordered the building condemned yesterday.

The 3:45 p.m. shooting inside a Mead Street apartment left the teen with a graze wound to the head and prompted a search of the home, which uncovered more than 36 grams of heroin and a handgun, according to police. Investigators are still trying to figure out who pulled the trigger.

“This is a black eye to the neighborhood,” Lowell police Capt. Kevin Sullivan told the Herald yesterday. “We don’t have a suspect right now. There was a girl who was present at the time of the shooting, but we don’t believe she fired the weapon. We don’t know if the gun that we found was the gun that was used in the assault. A laboratory result will provide the answer.”

Sullivan said the wounded boy was a “lucky kid” who was expected to be released from the hospital yesterday.

The girl, whose name was not released because of her age, is facing charges including trafficking more than 36 grams of heroin, two counts of possessing a Class B substance with intent to distribute and possessing a firearm and ammo without a license, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said in a statement.

Sullivan said the shooting occurred while several teens — all under the age of 18 — were in a room. An adult was in the apartment at the time of the shooting but was in another room, he said. The cause of the shooting remains under investigation.

Sullivan said one witness told cops an unknown male suspect barged into the apartment and opened fire on the victim.

The teen victim was “conscious, alert and talking” when medical personnel arrived at the scene Tuesday.

Sullivan said the incident highlights the scope of the opioid epidemic that is gripping the region and nation — noting it’s still rare to see young teens accused of dealing this much heroin.

“Our city has issues just like any other city. ... We’re talking about a lot of trafficking of heroin, that’s how much weight was involved,” he said. “That’s not street peddling 10 bags of marijuana — that’s the real thing there.”

Shaun Shanahan, the city’s building commissioner, said officials had already found “an arm’s length” of building violations yesterday. Pink fliers were taped to the front doors yesterday that read: “WARNING ... THIS BUILDING IS UNFIT FOR HUMAN HABITATION.”

The building’s landlord could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The building passed an inspection in 2011, and each violation will bring fines in excess of $1,000, Shanahan said. There have been about 20 buildings condemned in the city following police investigations this year, he said.

A longtime neighbor who would only identify himself as Bill praised the city for condemning the building.

“It’s going to improve things,” he said. “Get some of these drugs off the damn street.”