By Bill Forry and Jim O'Sullivan

"No more speeches. No more marches."

Mayor Tom Menino, in his own terse way, said it best last week, after the latest outrage in Dorchester's Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood: the shooting of 3-year-old Kai Leigh Harriott. The toddler was gunned down on her third-floor porch on July 2. She'll live, but she'll be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She's paralyzed.

It's a word that might well describe Kai Leigh's neighborhood right now: A lot of us are paralyzed with fear, hopelessness, a terrible kind of deja vu.

You would never know that the homicide count is actually down over last year. Numbers don't tell this story. There is a palpable feeling of dread and it's not just confined to the "hot spots".

Fields Corner. Carson Beach. Ashmont Hill. Geneva and Welles Aves. Church and Sumner and Dracut and Park and Bowdoin Streets. Bullets flew in all these places over the last 10 days. In most cases, they found marks, intended or not.

Is there anything that can be done to stop, or at least slow, the gunplay? Crime is part of life in the city, no doubt. But, when 3-year-olds are cut down in their own home, isn't it time to re-think everything? Is there something we're not doing that needs to be done?

We put the question to a collection of community activists, youth workers, and law enforcement professionals who know the lay of the land in Dorchester. What would they do, given the chance, to effect some change on this situation? And not next month or the month after. Today.

Captain Tom Lee, Boston Police Commander, Area C-11

"We had a tough week (last week). We've doubled patrols in the hot spots with overtime. We have a violence reduction strategy and the commissioner has told us to put out what we need to put out (manpower-wise). We're putting out more walking beats on Geneva and Bowdoin Street. There are two cars and a sergeant stationed there every night, plus three other drug squads assigned to us temporarily. There were another eight motorcycle units on the other night. Right now, we've just about doubled our patrols.

"The community needs to get back out in the neighborhood, talking to these kids and letting us know, before the fact, that they see trouble brewing. A lot of times we're getting to the scene and people say, 'These kids have been getting worse for weeks.' I think a lot of times the community assumes we know about the problem, but we're reliant on the community to keep us informed.

"We'd also like to see community leaders back out on the streets, intervening before the police are even required. And we have that going on in some neighborhoods, and not in others.

"If you look at overall picture, we've had a relatively quiet year. We've had one tough week. But we're continuing to make excellent arrests. We are making headway in these cases, but there are some very reluctant victims in many of these shootings.

"If you look at 38 Bowdoin Street (where Kai Leigh Harriott was shot), it was a tragedy having a three-year-old shot. But police had that person (the suspect, Anthony Warren) within two hours after the shooting...That case shows what we can do when we have coooperation from victims. The people in the community know which people are beefing. We'd appreciate it if they'd share that info with us....If family members want us to get involved before somehting happens, they need to let us know. Too often they are silent.

Emmett Folgert, Director, Dorchester Youth Collaborative, Fields Corner

"The thing you start with is the logic that the most dangerous time for juveniles is after-school: 2-6 in the day. By extension, logically, that week after school ends and summer programs begin- the week before the Fourth of July- that's when a lot of this stuff happens. Let's make a plan for next year so that the kids early on will know that it will be a fun week, with a lot of organized activities. So, they don't just run out into nothing. That will be a bridge to get the kids from school to summer jobs or programs.

"The other one is little deeper: probation officers. There's some famous probation officers here in Dorchester. Why don't we look at why they're famous: they get out from behind their desks and into the community and work with other jurisdictions.

"We can't do a curfew for political reasons. But everyone on probation has a curfew. They can all have some restrictions on what they're doing. But we don't have capacity to enfortce any of that. We need to change the system to mimmick (the best of the probation officers) using more interns for paperwork and get those guys out. We need to have the probation agreement be a square deal: you get a shot but you've got to live the right way. [Probation officers] should be the elite professional group that is our front line. They should have powers nobody else has. That would take massive reform."

Tina Chery, Co-founder, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute

"I think one of the main things I would do is exactly what the new bishop (O'Malley) is doing: bring people affected by this violence together and listen to them. If anyone can tell you about it, it's them.

"Second, hold a town meeting and a healing service on a big scale. We did that on Sept. 11 and we came together and did a healing servive and then looked at the players.

"I go back to my situation. The young man who killed [son, Louis D. Brown, who was killed on Geneva Ave. in 1993] was charged on federal gun charges, for trying to sell a handgun to an undercover FBI agent. But we cut a deal with him and he went to jail for killing Louis, which is less time [15 years]. But who did he get that gun from?

"Ten years later, while we celebrated our sucesses, we never went after the supplier- the source of where the kids are getting the guns from. All of these laws we have on the books, we're using laws to put away the young kids, but we're not going the next step. How do we find out who gave these kids the guns and follow the track? We can use informants. It's done all the time. Make a deal."

Davida Andelman, Bowdoin Street Health Center

Clarkson Street resident

"I've said for a long time now that it's great to have all these programs dealing with at-risk, younger kids. But some of us have been saying, 'What about the real bad actors?': the older adolescent and adult males... If you look at who is involved in all of these really violent crimes, for the most part, it's older adolescents and guys in early 20s. We can't forget about them. They're the ones shooting innocent bystanders...

"We need to go and visit the families. The police know who they are. And not after the fact, I'm talking about going into homes of those who are out there shooting and trying to work with the adults in those families. You can't tell me they don't know that they're out there engaged in this...They're being coddled, but I don't just blame it on the adults. I think that they need help.

"There definitely needs to be more police, but they can't be in the right place at the right time. It has to be police, the community and the courts. The kid whose stray bullet hit the three year-old was out on probation. How many instances had he been in? You have to be severe.

Community residents, with clergy, need to start walking the streets at the times of day and night when there is a greater likelihood of these kind of things happening. We need to say, 'We are taking back our streets.'"

Erica Nunnally, Owner, Yellow Brick Road Ice Cream, Bowdoin Street

Last month, Nunnally was mugged in the back of her store and robbed. She says local business associations and police have been slow to respond to her concerns.

"It'd be great if our business association could do, like, 'business buddies.' I think that we should all buy walkie-talkies, so that businesses that open at the same time and close at the same time could talk to each other. It'd be kind of like a more active crime watchers."

Nunnally said area merchants have talked with each other and with city officials about installing cameras on the streets and in the stores, but that little has been done.

"I'm a little disgusted and a little disappointed. I've gotten a lot of cards, a lot of sympathy, but that doesn't stop these things."

Nunnally also called on area police to "enforce the little things. If you start ticketing people for parking in the bus stops and in the crosswalk, you may pick up a few more people, because the small things add up. The other thing would be to ask the police to post the pictures of wanted people on the telephone poles or on the doors or in the churches. Because it's easier to help the police because you know what they're looking for."

John Barros, Executive director, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative/ Co-owner, Cesaria Restaurant, Bowdoin Street

"We need to have jobs for the youth that are tied with some intensive career and job development. This might mean its tied to an education program, working on writing skills, planning for the future. Jobs alone won't do it- but they have to be the core to approach these issues. It has to be supplemented with individual case-work with each of the kids.

"From a merchant's standpoint, we have to figure out ways to get the kids better training. We have a bunch of kids who come into the restaurant all the time. We tell them, 'If you guys walk in here with good report cards- As and Bs - you get a free meal. Some of the kids took us up on it. If merchants can do that, tie in academic success."

City Councillor-at-Large

"We've got to be vigorous in monitoring youth behavior and what they're up to. I think we're going to have to redouble our efforts with respect to reaching out to our youth," Murphy said.

"We have to count on people, I think, families, to watch out for their young kids and watch our for their neighbors' kids."

Leonard Lee

Executive director, ABCD Dorchester Service Center, Clayton Street

"We want to develop street teams and go out in the streets and talk with these kids and give them options, and those options could be anything from sitting down and playing dominoes with them, to finding them jobs, to setting up a conversation with them," said Lee, who said he has considered quitting his job and pursuing the idea.

"Professional blacks and Latinos who work downtown aren't out there in the streets. Now I'm putting a challenge out there to everybody who cares about this. I'm going to call my friends who work and ask them for one night a week, to come out and walk around in the streets, with a bunch of games or a radio or something.

"I'm not saying it's going to be a cure-all, but I think we need to set up relationships with these kids who don't have anything but negativity. I'm thinking about resigning my job to do this full-time."

"I don't have no funding. I'm going on faith."

 Maureen Feeney

City Councillor, District Three

"We have got to be in overdrive. We've got to work together on this, because the police can only do their jobs if people are willing to give them information and be participants in their community."

Feeney said one idea she'd heard came from a community meeting on Dracut Street: "When you're walking on the street and see someone you don't know, walk right up to them, say, 'Hello,' and let them know they've been seen. That will send a message that this is a neighborhood that's connected, that we know our neighbors."

Feeney also suggested closer study of data compiled by calls to the city party line, which monitors night activity, and more closely engaging the clergy.

Manuel Barros

Owner, GI Cleaners, Bowdoin Street

Barros said his business has been robbed and had its windows broken, but has been lucky compared to other stores along Bowdoin.

"I think we need more police presence &emdash; 24 hours a day. [Teenagers] think they can do anything they want; nobody seems to care."

"See, the cops come in at 4:30, they stay until nine in the night, and then they're gone. And there's nobody there except the kids."

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Fernando Bossa , left, started a crime watch in 1999 that has seen positive results in his neighborhood just off Columbia Road near Uphams Corner. Above, Bossa is shown with Uphams Corner Main Streets director Colin Riley. Leo Huynh photo.

Start a Crime Watch

'The Power of Example'

Fernando Bossa, Founder,Groom-Humphrey Neighborhood Assoc.

"When I started the crime watch in 1999, this neighborhood was literally cluttered with abandoned cars, poor lighting, missing street signs. I called up former state representative Charlotte Golar Richie and I said, "I need help to get this neighborhood organized." She told me to get everyone together on a Saturday morning, so I went door-to-door knocking on every single floor on six streets and asked them: 'Are you tired of the criminal activity in this neighborhood and would you like to see some change?'

"That morning, there were more than 75 people in front of my house...The next meeting was in my backyard and it was packed. By the third meeting, the mayor did a walk- through and nearly fell over when he saw the place. He said, 'Get this place fixed up.' Within a year, we had brand new sidewalks, street signs and we were landlords to take ownership of the properties again. We literally took back our streets.

"What (the crime watch members) have done is they've used the 911 system. We went through the Citizens Police Academy and got to see how system worked. We built a phone tree and called 911 to report incidents.

"The Citizens Police Academy is a very good educational tool for people who don't know much about the police. Most if us have a one-sided view of that and don't understand the work they have to go through.

"This summer, we did something different: we held a clean up-block party on June 7. We closed the street off for big cook out and we bought 50 flower boxes and donated them to every family on Wendover Street. The other day, I was walking down Wendover Street and a resident said to me, 'Fernando, I want to start a crime watch on Wendover Street.' So, they're coming out to our crime watch next week. That's the power of example that we love to see.

"Now, there is a new Dudley Street-Uphams Corner Safe Neighborhood Initiative through D.A. Conley's office that's been really has been working very well. We're feeling again that we're taking back our streets...

"I know it gets done on a light scale, but we need more outreach to families with troubled and repeat offenders. It needs to be done in a more orderly way. We can identify the families that are having problems, but we don't see people going to these homes to see them and find out what the issues are.

"What I hear is that some people are afraid to talk to the kids, because they are afraid of retaliation. They are threatened by their own kids and it becomes a code of silence. We need someone who can be in the middle and help the family speak a little more freely."

Ego Ezedi

Candidate, District Four City Council

"It's not complicated, it's very basic. If you know who the troublemakers are- and excuse me for simplifying this - then you know what the challenges are. The best way to confront them is to go to the parents... In my experience, the best way to address these types of problems, the best thing to do is to go to the homes - politicians, youth workers, clergy members.

"No legislation is going to do it, no fancy programs are going to do it, you just have to meet these young people where they are and that's the only way we can address it and that's the only way it's been effective."

Michael Flaherty

President, Boston City Council

"My solution is to treat the violence that we're seeing as a public health problem, recognizing that public health took a big elbow this year in state budget cuts. It would be prudent to restore some money to the public health arena.

"Trying to help one another with new ideas, trying to reach out to those who suffer from physical abuse and drug and alcohol addictions, and to do so by boosting our community health centers, would go along way foward curbing the trend. I think one way to end the cycle - or at least combat the problem - is to really engage and empower out community health centers to play an active role."

Flaherty called for state funding and city grants to be funneled into CHCs, earmarked for substance abuse prevention programs and parental accountability curriculum.

 Eddie Jenkins

Criminal defense lawyer

"The institutions that are working the best, probably, are the churches, because the churches have the ethical appeal and they have the kind of resources that can reach a family. They need to partner with the business community to create the job opportunities for our young people.

"My answer to this is that there is no one fix. We have to incoroporate as many people as possible. We all have to work in partnership and not compete, so that we can get things done."

Praising the Red Sox, Jenkins, a former New England Patriot, called on other local professional sports teams to establish youth leagues and instructional sessions, partnering with local organizations to provide activities and positive role models.

 Felix Arroyo

City Councillor-at-Large

"We need to be able to survey [teenagers] and find out what the issues are that are pertinent to their needs ... There is no fragmentation of those issues: Violence comes as a result of what we have been able to plant and develop in these."

Arroyo suggested an inventory of area youth by local churches and youth organizations, adding, "[Progress] has to be made with them, not for them."

Ulric Johnson

Founder, Teens Against Gang Violence, Fields Corner

"I think one immediate thing that needs to be done- and this is like deja vu from 1995- is that the media needs to stop glorifying all these homicides. It creates an atmosphere of fear, rather than also highlighting all the other fun activities that are going on. Life is still going on here. Help us promote more of the assets that are going on. At least give a balanced picture of the activites and programs that are available. The media coverage is really flaming and creating an atmosphere that we don't want to create.

Teens Against Gang Violence will hold an open house at its new office at 1486 Dorchester Ave. this Sunday at 3 p.m. Call 617-825-8248 for more information.

 Jack Hart

State Senator, First Suffolk

"There is no easy answer, but the safe neighborhood initiatives have worked well, and we need to bring crime watches back," said Hart, who for the time being opposes mandatory curfews for teens, but qualified, "If it reaches a point where people are afraid to go outside of their houses at night, law abiding citizens, if we have to take that step in the end, then I'm not opposed to it."

Hart also proposed legislative avenues for relief. "I'd like to see if I could get some more resources. I'd like to go to the governor and the Speaker if I have to, to tell them we need more resources. Until I sit down and find out what resources we can have and what steps we can take, my position is one of outrage."

 Marvin Martin

Director, Four Corners Action Coalition

"I think what people have got to be serious about is taking back the street. We have marches and rallies and then we go home until the next person gets shot. We've got to be visible. I know people are tired when they come home from work, but it doesn't have to be every night. We need more people to give one night a week. We can't continue to let it go on and think it's going to end itself.

"If folks are in Four Corners or Bowdoin Geneva- they can call me- we are looking for people to help.

"There's a larger problem too and that's that we've allowed a cultural system to tell our kids that they have to be cruel and vicious and insensitive to each other. That it's cool to be stupid and walk around with your clothes hanging off you and to listen to obscenities. Folks can say it's a cultural thing, but its not. All of us have to dismantle that industry- it's a big part of the problem."

The Four Corners Action Coalition can be reached at 436-0289.

 Fight Crime Through E-mail

Bill Walczak Executive Director, Codman Square Health Center

"We just did a survey of our patients and found that 60 percent have access to the Internet, which means they have an e-mail address. It would seem to me that using email as a way to advise people in a particular community about a crime trend- like a rash of car breaks for example - should be something that could be done. My suggestion is that we ought to use the power of technology we have, since email is being used for absolutley everything else. It should be relatively easy to pilot a way of generating information to community members- to get it out in a real time basis- so they can be more aware...This would alert a large number of people in a particular area having particular problems to be on the look-out, so when they see the potential of problems, they will be much more likely to alert the police. My guess is that if this alert system were started, the number of reports would go way up and that will lead to more arrests and certainly more of a presence. Go get a $200,000 grant from the Justice Department, put a year's worth of work into getting e-mail addresses and figuring it all out, and then give people the information they need to have safer streets."

Leo Gaquin

Owner, May Om Liquors,

on Bowdoin St.

"I've done what I've had to do," said Gaquin, waving at the bulletproof glass he had installed in 1990, after a clerk who had worked for him for 25 years - "like a sister" - was shot and killed in an armed robbery. "I did what I had to do here for protection, for my protection and my health."

Asked what he thought could be done to stop the shootings and crime in the neighborhood where he's lived for more than half a century, Gaquin replied, "I have no idea."

Martin Walsh

State Representative, 13th Suffolk

Walsh, chairman of the state's Homeland Security committee, said, "I think it is a homeland security issue. To some degree, people that are preying on individuals in the street - that's terrorism."

Walsh called for harsher punishments for petty criminals. "We have to make sure that judges enforce the law," said Walsh, pointing out that Anthony Warren, charged with shooting 3-year-old Kai Leigh Harriet last week, already carried a weighty rap sheet. "We have to hold the judges accountable; say, 'Listen, when these people appear in front of you with hand guns or drugs, you need to put there people in jail.'"

"As legislators, we can put money in the budget, we can do all these great things that we've done in the past. We have to ask churches to do things to mak themselves appealing, to get kids off the streets and onto their grounds."

Long Nguyen

Executive director, VietAID

"I think, for us, given the rate of conflict, particularly in the Vietnamese youth, one way to address the rising violence is to make sure that people of different communities get together to promote and reach an understanding of differences in our different cultures," Nguyen said, proposing cross-cultural events with teens and parents from the Cape Verdean, African American, and Vietnamese communities.

Nguyen said one project VietAID has started in an effort to curb violence in its community is the compilation an oral history, with teens talking with the elderly about their experiences. Nguyen suggested involving people from other ethnicities as well.

"Why not make it a multicultural, multiracial project?"

Nguyen called increased police presence a "short-term" solution. "The police can't be there forever."

Terry Cousins

Head coach, Dorchester Pop Warner

"First of all, we've definitely got to stop blaming the politicians," said Cousins, brother of two victims of street violence. "You have to get in these kids' heads. A kid is not going to respect a person that's telling him what to do unless the person is from the street.

"Nobody wants to hear the guy who came from Harvard and who sits up in a room full of kids and thugs and tells them, 'You gotta do this' or 'You gotta do that.' Especially the hard-headed kids, the knucklehead kids, they'll respect you if they know you're from the street."

Cousins suggested that state and city government join with private businesses to add summer jobs. If budget cuts make paying jobs unfeasible, Cousins proposed, then summer jobs should be given out with the promise of scholarship money when the student graduates high school, giving both financial and academic incentive.

Cousins also suggested loosening laws regarding corporal punishment, saying that the courts make it more difficult for parents to discipline their children.

Brother Celestino Arias

Director, Catholic Charities Summer Program, St. Peter's, Bowdoin Street

"I think there are a lot of good programs out there, just not enough. We need more meaningful working programs and caring, responsible adults to work with them.

 "We have a group of teens [42 teens ages 14-19] at Saint Peter's, but we need more. Many are new arrivals from Cape Verde. The program is combined with about 2-3 hours of intensive work on academics and then educational enrichment, visiting college campuses, sailing lessons."

Maura Hennigan

City Councillor-at-Large

"I think after all is said and done, we have to make up the gap," said Hennigan, who said she voted against the city budget for the next fiscal year because it did not set aside enough money to pay for summer jobs. "I think we really have to go the extra measure there. Whatever we cannot get from the business community, whatever we cannot get from local businesses, whatever we cannot get from private investors, I think we have to make up the difference and close the gap on our end."

Thomas Nee

President, Boston Police Patrolman's Association

"The service out in the street is down significantly because we're down 300 men in our ranks, and that's a significant number given that there are 2,000 officers in the City of Boston," said Nee.

"We need 300 more policemen and we need them quickly. Because you know where we are right now ... we're in the late-'80s and we're going to have to fight this back street-by-street, one street at a time like we did back then."

Nee called for less cyclical, more regular hirings of police officers, and said that Commissioner Paul Evans's message that the commissioner's office is hamstrung by the police union was disingenuous.

"People pay taxes where you have a policeman in a hotspot, where you put an officer in a position and you can leave him in that hotspot, where he can stop the problem."

Mickey Roache

Suffolk County Register of Deeds, former police commissioner, and former city councillor-at-large

"If community policing is the real strategy - and the most important part of community policing, we know, is partnerships - I think we need to extend partnerships. And we need to look at how to do this," said Roache, proposing that representatives from the fields of public health, education, religion, law enforcement, the courts, immigration, and City Hall form a committee.

"We need to set markers with no let-up and and no breakdown, for three-to-six months, and it all should culminate in a report of what is working, what isn't working, what should be changed. You don't lose anything, and you might gain something."

Michael Capuano

Congressman, Eighth District

"If I had to pick one solution, I think you have to start with increased police presence, which is very, very difficult under the present budget situation," Capuano said. "And it can't stop with more police. If that's all you have, then you'll lose it.

"In and of itself, that won't make a difference. But I've always thought that when you have a particular problem in a particular neighborhood, you need to make sure that the streets belong to the people. And the police are the people. The police represent the people, and they represent public health and public safety."

Capuano said pairing added street and social workers with police is "a good formula," and pushed for more summer jobs.

"I think it's a very good use of public monies to give kids summer jobs. But it's part of the budget crunch. You can't hire kids while you're laying off teachers and cop; I understand that. But I think the state government should have a separate pot of money set aside for summer jobs for kids."

Larry Mayes

Director, Log School,

Bowdoin Street

"We've got a tremendous amount of young people who represent the future of this neighborhood. The challenge is what happens to those 18 and up who are bringing some major drama. The community really has to be more forthcoming with the police, sharing information... We have got to find a way to get some money into probation, both adult and juvenile. I think what we're looking for is some more unpredictably from the police, especially to be more proactive warrants."

Tom Menino

Mayor

"When I think about some of the issues we've faced in Boston this summer, it makes me think about civility," Menino said in a statement. "People need to treat each other better. Some of these recent crimes have been so upsetting, and people need to honestly and directly face tough questions about responsibility.

"Our police are working hard to do their jobs, and we have many summer programs available to our young people. For example, the Boston Neighborhood Basketball league is up and running. We have 20 swimming pools open across the city. And we will soon open a youth facility behind the Burke School that will offer basketball and youth programs to our kids.

"We need the help of the community as well. We want to help the good people of Boston stand up and say to those who have no respect for life - or for anything else - STOP."

 Charles Yancey

City Councillor, District Four

"We need to pursue the folks who are actively supplying these weapons to people in the City of Boston," Yancey said. "I'm not saying we should be easy on the lower-level criminals, that's not the case at all ... But we live in a technologically advanced society and, through forensics, we should be able to track where these guns are coming from."

Yancey said also that money from the seizure of drugs, weapons, and other illegal materials should be funneled into youth programs, crime watches, and substance abuse treatment programs, rather than divided among the police, district attorney, and attorney general.

 Stephen F. Lynch

Congressman, Ninth District

Lynch was unavailable for comment, but his press secretary, Matt Ferraguto, said that Lynch had spoken with Rev. Eugene F. Rivers and other leading clergy since the violence escalated a few weeks ago, and plans to speak with local politicians and community groups.

According to Ferraguto, Lynch is also exploring possibilities for funding from the federal government, including grants from the Justice Department for substance abuse programsl, juvenile justic and delinquency prevention, and faith-based initiatives, which Ferraguto termed "a proven way to try and address problems like this." From Health and Human Services, Ferraguto said, Lynch is seeking funds for mental health programs and prison-release transitions. The Department of Education and Dept. of Housing and Urban Development were other possible sources of funds that could be earmarked for specific communities, Ferraguto said.

 Bob Scannell, Director, Colonel Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club

"Back in 1990-91, when there were 150-odd murders, it was essentially the same climate: there weren't jobs for teenagers. That's the biggest thing that worries me now: a large number of teens with free time and no money. It's a recipe for disaster...We're lucky. [At the Marr Club] we'll place close to a hundred kids. That's our focus, and we're trying to get private funders to help. For a kid to work the entire summer, it's really only $1,600-$1,800. That doesn't seem like much, but to the kids that's enough to keep them out of trouble." 

July 4: Tony On, 15, of Dorchester, was shot dead at Carson Beach during a fireworks display. Two other Dorchester teens were wounded in what sources say was a clash of two Vietnamese-American gangs. Earlier that morning, a man was shot on Westville St.

July 3: Boston Police raided 31 Dracut Street and found an arsenal of weapons, which currently are being tested for ballistics to judge if any have been involved in recent shootings.

July 2: A man was assaulted with a handgun outside the Store 24 at 1420 Dorchester Ave.

July 1: 3-year-old Kai Leigh Harriet was playing on a third-floor porch on Bowdoin St. when one bullet severed her spinal cord, paralyzing her. Authorities have charged Anthony Warren, 26, of Hyde Park, with the crime. Also that night, two men were shot at Roberts Park near Ashmont Hill.

June 27: 14-year-old Eon Hoskins was stabbed to death in Grove Hall, the second to die in a 24-hour span that also claimed the lives of Jamal Jackson, 22, who was stabbed to death in Mattapan, and another man, whose body was found burned in a trunk in Charlestown. Henrique Lopes was shot in the head on Church St., but is expected to recover.

June 26: Charles Horsley was shot in front of his Meetinghouse Hill home and is expected to recover.

The Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force Hotline can be called anonymously at 617-343-5195.