Teens in fatal shooting were ‘best friends’
Family, friends shaken as 1 dead, 1 injured in attack
Gunfire that claimed the life of a 16-year-old boy in South Boston Monday night also wounded his 15-year-old best friend, the slain teen’s family and friends told the Herald yesterday.
“They were best friends. They would ride BMX bikes together,” said Patrick Martin, 25, a resident of the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development where police say shots rang out about 11:15 p.m. Monday on O’Callaghan Way.
Boston police did not reveal any motive for the shooting and no arrests were reported as of last night. Edwin Santana, 39, the heartbroken father of deceased Angel Daniel “Steven” Ruiz Suazo, said investigators told his family they’ve recovered a weapon that may have been used in the shooting.
Santana believes his son was an unintended victim of reckless gunplay. But he also acknowledged Angel had been hanging around with the wrong crowd.
He was with his friend at the complex when gunshots erupted, Santana said.
“The shooting is for somebody else,” Santana said. “(Angel) was next to the person, so that person that supposed to get shot, he got seven shots. And my son, he got two, one in the chest and one in the neck.”
In Spanish, Santana said the Southie housing complex where the shooting occurred is “getting worse every day.”
“My son is a good boy,” he said. “This is a hard loss. He’s friendly with everybody. But for the last few months, he got around bad company . ... I try to pray for every young person around here. Be out of the street because the street is nothing.”
Angel lived at the complex for nearly a decade, his father said. Friends of the teens said the wounded 15-year-old boy would often visit his grandmother there.
The teen’s grandmother confirmed that and said her grandson is in the eighth grade at the McCormack Middle School. Yesterday, she said in Spanish his survival from multiple shots to the torso is a “miracle.”
She added she was saddened her grandson’s friend was killed. She said of any potential shooter or shooters: “I hope he feels sorry. Because there is a lot of pain, and a lot of suffering, that was passed down to families.”
Angel had two younger siblings, a 13-year-old sister and 7-yearold brother, Santana said. He had previously attended TechBoston Academy.
Friends of the teens gathered yesterday at a makeshift memorial where candles were on the ground and a picture of Angel was wrapped around a tree.
They lamented how their pal’s life was cut so short.
“Everybody thinks he was happy, but he wasn’t really happy, he was trying to be happy,” said a 17-yearold ex-girlfriend. “He was caring. He was always there for me even after I broke up with him. He was there for me.”