JP on edge after shooting victims ID’d
Police are seeking the public’s help in solving a shooting in Jamaica Plain on Monday night that left two people dead.
“This is a tough scene. This shouldn’t be tolerated in our neighborhoods,” police Commissioner William Gross told reporters at the scene. He added he’s asking for help in the case.
The victims were identified as Christian Green, 32, of New Bedford, and Jose M. Martinez, 34, of Boston.
The call first came in at 9:54 p.m. for shots fired on Mozart and Bolster streets. John F. Kennedy Elementary School and Mozart Park are in that area.
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins also condemned the shooting so close to a park and school. Trauma teams were back at the scene Tuesday.
No arrests have been made in the case.
With kids playing behind a line of neon traffic cones, police officers tagged and photographed evidence on the elementary schoolyard grounds. A green Toyota Tercel sat outside the school’s iron fence, a bullet hole visible in the gas cap door.
Neighbors in the area say they have lived there for decades and added the block is usually pretty safe, but the shooting has put them on edge.
Some told the Herald they heard shots. Others blamed the violence on increased gentrification in the area.
“We are kind of right on the line of nice condos then crappy areas, it’s like neck and neck,” said resident Lara Diaz.
Tina Goulet, who lives across the street from the school, said she heard the gunshots, but thought they were fireworks.
“My neighbor had to come back and knock on the door and she was like, ‘It wasn’t fireworks, there are a bunch of cops outside,’ ” Goulet said.
For her, the most concerning thing was her daughter’s safety and the safety of all the kids in the area.
“It is next to a school and a playground, like that’s supposed to be a safe spot for kids,” Goulet said. “God forbid it happened during school.”
Boston Public Schools said they released a letter to parents informing them of the situation and warning them of the increased police and media presence at the school. A spokesman for BPS said that because the shooting happened outside of school hours, it was really only geographic location that linked the school to the shooting.
He did say the school had support for students who needed it.