Boy among 3 dead in Hub shootings
Wanted to become an officer
The mother of a 15-yearold who was one of three people killed Thursday in Boston said her son was a compassionate boy who dreamed of going into forensics one day to help speak for the dead.
“When he was younger, he wanted to be a police officer,” Toni Rodriguez said of her son, Xhavier, the oldest of her six children. “Then as he got older and watched different shows like ‘CSI,’ he always liked the science part. He wanted to help people.”
Xhavier, who would have started his sophomore year at TechBoston Academy in the fall, was fatally shot and two other victims suffered injuries that were not lifethreatening at 10 p.m. Thursday on Mount Pleasant Avenue in Roxbury.
The shootings remained under investigation Friday, when Rafael Santos Santiago was arraigned in Dorchester District Court on charges of murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition in connection with the killing of another of Thursday’s victims, Justin Cannady.
At the request of Assistant District Attorney John Verner, Judge James Coffey ordered Santiago, 35, held without bail while the case is pending. He is due back in court on July 29.
Santiago approached Cannady, 22, and a second man shortly after 8 p.m. in the area of Columbia Road and accused the men of stealing a scooter from one of his relatives, prosecutors said.
The men began arguing, prosecutors said, and Santiago went to retrieve a gun and then went to a Hosmer Street address to confront the men again. He pursued them to the area of Norfolk and Woolson streets and opened fire, killing Cannady, prosecutors said.
Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Thursday, a third victim, Rashawn WashingtonClark, 45, was shot inside his vehicle in the area of Norfolk Street and Peacevale Road in Dorchester, authorities said. He was able drive to the intersection of Armadine Street and Milton Avenue but succumbed to his wounds.
All three of Thursday’s shootings remain under investigation.
“The violence that this city saw … ripped away the lives of three individuals and inflicted immeasurable trauma and harm on the communities that experience gun violence,” Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement Friday.
Toni Rodriguez described her son as a “good kid with a really big heart” who could never hate anybody.” Rodriguez added: “He was an amazing brother to his siblings, and he was an amazing son.”
Xhavier loved science, built his own electric-powered, miniature cars and had just gotten a job through Youth Options Unlimited, a citywide program, she said.
Stephanie Kehoe, a family friend, said Xhavier had a “heart of gold” and was likely in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was shot.
“You would never imagine this is what the end would be for him,” said Kehoe, who brought blue, white and gold balloons to a makeshift memorial in the place where he was gunned down. “These streets swallowed him up.”