By Bill Forry and Brian Denitzio
Reporter Editors

Four young men were fatally gunned down inside a Bourneside Street home on Tuesday night, leaving an already crime-wary neighborhood outraged and driving the city's murder rate to a ten-year high of 71. The quadruple homicide was the highest single-incident body count in the city since 1995, and the worst in recent memory in Dorchester.

By Wednesday afternoon, Boston Police had not yet released the names of the victims, all described as older teens and young adults, found in the basement of 43 Bourneside Street. One of the victims was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The other three victims died at the scene.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that one victim was 21 year-old Edwin Duncan, who lived at the house. According to AP, Duncan was a member of a rap group that was using the basement space to record music. Witnesses told investigators they saw a heavyset person fleeing the scene just after the shooting at about 9:45 p.m.

Tia Duncan, identified as Edwin Duncan's sister, told AP that her brother was waiting for other bandmates to arrive when the shooting took place.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole said the killings did not appear random. She confirmed that one of the victims lived in the house.

"It's much too early to speculate on a motive in this incident," she said. "But generally speaking, homicides occurring inside residences are seldom random acts of violence."

Deputy Police Superintendent Bobbie Johnson told reporters Tuesday that police had not had any problems at the 43 Bourneside address in the past.

"The neighbors have seen the kids go in and out, but they have not had the need to call police to intervene," said Johnson.

"The incident happened in the basement, inside, and even if we had a 100 cops on the beat it probably wouldn't have prevented this type of crime," Johnson said.

Neighbors and civic activists in the nearby Melville-Park and Fields Corner community reached for comment on Wednesday widely agreed that the Bourneside Street home was not known to be a problem property.

"The only noise that's been on Bourneside Street for the last 50 years has been the noise of kids playing across the street at Casey Town Field," said Tom Gannon, president of the Fields Corner Civic Association.

A Reporter review of police activity logs over the last three months reveals no pattern of crime at all on Bourneside Street, and very few incidents on surrounding streets in the tightly-knit Melville - Park community. In September, Boston Police responded to the corner of Bourneside and Park streets for a call of an unarmed street mugging. A Seaver Street man was arrested near the scene in connection to the robbery.

Last July, a young woman working at the nearby Lukoil gas station at Park Street and Geneva Avenue was slain in an apparent robbery. A former employee of the gas station was quickly arrested and charged with that homicide.

Despite the brutal nature of the Lukoil slaying, neighbors in and around Melville - Park say that their tree-lined streets, dotted with Victorian homes that teeter towards the million dollar mark, have remained largely free of violent crime.

One Melville Avenue neighbor told the Reporter he walks his dog past the site of Tuesday night's murder every day.

"You would see more kids hanging out there than at other houses," said the resident. "But it was not a troubled house. It seemed quiet, well-maintained. The people outside were always friendly."

City councillor Charles Yancey, who lives just blocks away on Hooper Street, came across the crime scene on his way home.

"I was aware that there was some type of studio in there, but nothing out of the ordinary," Yancey told the Reporter on Wednesday. "I was not aware of any drug activity or anything like that. It's been a very quiet building from my observations."

Paul Robinson, who lives nearby on Wellesley Park, said that activists lately have been most worried about street muggings targeting MBTA customers leaving Shawmut station. News that four people were killed in the brown house on Bourneside Street came as a shock.

"It's very unusual for the Melville-Park community," said Robinson. "One of the things that has frustrated people is the muggings. We in the Melville-Park Civic Association have made those situations known to police. And the police respond as they do all over the city: They say, 'Well, we're down 200 officers and we'll get new officers as soon as they graduate.' Well, that doesn't deal with the here and now."

Robinson said that "a number of people are angry with the mayor" for not responding more decisively to hire a full complement of police officers.

"By and large, the city does a very good job at a variety of things," Robinson said. "But the violent crime is on the increase and more police patrols could help."

Others, like Tom Gannon and Superintendent Johnson, doubted that increased police presence would have affected the slaughter that police and paramedics encountered Tuesday night on Bourneside Street.

"People get concerned about people having cops everywhere, but they can't be inside people's houses," said Gannon.

City councillor Maureen Feeney said Wednesday that she intends to file a home rule petition that would "revisit the gun statutes around gun posession." Feeney was reacting to the Bourneside massacre, but also to a noontime shootout on Monday, just a quarter-mile away at Victory Road and Neponset Avenue.

Feeney said the petition "would potentially seek a change that gives you a year (in jail) for every gun in your possession. And we need to address ammunition, too," Feeney said. "People are hiding guns on the street and walking around with bullets in their pockets. You're not walking around with bullets unless you know where there's a gun."

"We've worked too hard to be where we are right now," Feeney said of the spike in violence in Dorchester. "These random acts, there's no way to control it other than to get the guns off the street."

Boston Police ask anyone with information about this incident to contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470 or the Boston Police Anonymous Tip Line at 617-494-TIPS.