Cops probing intent behind Mattapan slay
Police are looking at whether the killing of a city public works foreman Saturday night was targeted — after the man had been shot at twice before.
Alexander “A.J.” Allen’s widow described him as a “hero” who had donated his kidney to her.
“I just lost a wonderful man. He was a very brave person. He was my hero. I mean, this man gave me a kidney,” Dola Thelwell-Allen, 59, said yesterday of her slain husband of 20 years, who was shot dead on his couch on his 55th birthday.
Allen — a veteran highway maintenance supervisor friends and family told the Herald dodged bullets twice before in 2017 — was killed in his home at about 11:15 p.m. Saturday.
Police Commissioner William G. Gross, saying Allen was “a fellow city worker” whose family has his sympathies, was asked whether he thought Allen was targeted.
“Yes, somewhat,” Gross said. “We want to make sure it’s not random. At this point, it’s not leaning that way. We still need assistance from everybody. If you have anything — we don’t care if you’re a relative, friend, whatever — come help us out so we can solve this crime.”
Speaking on the steps of her home on Manchester Street in Mattapan yesterday, Thelwell-Allen said, “When someone catches you in your sleep, it’s just wickedness. You don’t even have a chance to defend yourself. I think the bastard came in and just shot him.
“I was upstairs in my bedroom and he was downstairs, watching TV and taking a little nap. I heard this noise and then I heard, ‘Pow, pow, pow!’ I didn’t know exactly what happened, but I knew it wasn’t good. I just went for my phone and I called 911 and I begged them, ‘Please come over here now. I need help.’
“Honestly, I was in a state of shock. I was terrified, I was scared. I didn’t run down right away. By the time I got to him he didn’t say one word to me. Not one word. He was sort of slumped over, out of the couch. I was trying to straighten him out. He was struggling to breathe because they had shot him the chest. I hope he knew I was there because I was calling to him, ‘Alex, wake up! Wake up!’ ” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Thelwell-Allen said she believes the murder “was well-planned” because the couple’s security cameras were removed from the front of their house.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday called Allen “a good employee” who worked hard.
“It’s a tough situation,” Walsh said. “It’s kind of baffling when you see something like this and you don’t really know what the circumstance surrounding it is.”
After an apparent attempt on his son’s life in December when he was shot while sitting in his DPW truck, Allen’s father, Bishop Alexander Allen Sr., said he told him, “‘Get out. Leave town. They’ll be back.’ But he never did leave.”
The father said he didn’t nose around in his son’s personal business.
“My son was one of the best guys I know,” he said. “Everybody loved that kid.”