The year in crime and public safety was one of major leadership changes from the US Attorney for Massachusetts to the Boston Police and Fire departments. It was also a year of heartbreak in neighborhoods where murders by gun and assaults took a heavy toll.

Following is a look back at it all, beginning in January:

•As DA Rachael Rollins prepared to leave her post in January for a new position as US Attorney for Massachusetts, Gov. Baker named Kevin Hayden, chair of the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB), to serve out the remainder of Rollins’s term. Hayden later threw in his hat in as a candidate for DA, running and winning a very competitive race against City Councillor Ricardo Arroyo.

Rachael Rollins took the oath as US Attorney for Massachusetts in April. Mayor’s Office photo by John Wilcox

•A Dorchester man was shot to death inside Braintree’s South Shore Plaza on Jan. 22. Dijoun C. Beasley, 26, was shopping at the Forever 21 store when he was a murdered, allegedly by Julius Hammond-Desir, 19, of Maynard.

•Several public safety unions, including the Dorchester-based Firefighters Local 718, waged a legal battle over Boston’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate. A Superior Court judge had denied their combined motion for a preliminary injunction against the mayor’s policy. But a state Appeals Court judge issued a stay while the Superior Court ruling was being reviewed. The unions involved were Local 718, the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society, and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation.

Veteran officials take new posts – From left, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke, and C-11 Commander Capt. Shawn Burns. At right, 16-year-old Jucelena Gomes, who was killed in a Jan. 2 shooting in Codman Square that left two other people wounded.

•Boston and Canton Police were faced with a mystery in February when Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the department, was found dead outside a Canton home. His girlfriend, Karen Read, was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly hitting him with her car and leaving.

•A federal judge in Boston sentenced Bruce “Arki” Brown, 43, of Dorchester, to 11-and-a-half years in US prison for his 15-year career as a pimp that included routine beatings and threats to intimidate the women – and a 16-year-old girl –he was trafficking in prostitution.

•Boston’s requirement of proof of vaccination to enter certain indoor spaces ended on Feb. 18, after officials said the city had hit three thresholds that indicate levels of coronavirus among the populace. But officials at the State House, just a short walk from City Hall, kept limits in place. On Feb. 22, the state capitol building welcomed visitors for the first time since the March 2020.

•A man from Worcester was arrested in February after he allegedly broke into the Franklin Park Zoo and attempted to get into a secure enclosure for the facility’s tigers. State troopers were called to the scene by security staff who detained 24-year-old Matthew Abraham.

•A Nigerian man living in Grove Hall who pretended to be a dashing American soldier so he could worm his way into the hearts of lonely women online to swindle them pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Mike Oziegbe Amiegbe, 42, even managed to persuade a 70-year-old woman in San Antonio to fly to Brussels in pursuit of a box purportedly containing $24 million that he had found while allegedly serving in special forces in Syria.

•A Boston police officer was arraigned in Dorchester court on March 7 on a charge that he tried to intimidate an internal affairs investigator whose probe landed him on administrative leave for moving out of Boston before his union contract allowed him to. The defendant—Matthew Morrissey — allegedly drove to the detective’s house, parked his pickup truck out front, “rolled down his window and stared at the fellow officer.” It was allegedly the third time he had done such a thing.

•The Tech Boston Academy (formerly Dorchester High School) was rocked on Tuesday evening, March 15, when two shooters riding on a scooter came into the school parking lot and shot a teacher and a 17-year-old student preparing to get on a fan bus travelling to a state high school basketball playoff game. They survived their injuries. About 90 minutes after the shooting, the basketball team was scheduled to play a high-stakes Final Four State Tournament game in Framingham against Watertown. Tech Boston lost, 59-50. The two teens later arrested and charged with the gunfire are from Lynn and Dorchester.

•Two men were sentenced to life in prison without parole in March after they were convicted in the shooting death of Deondra Lee, a 34-year-old father of four who was killed while watching a July Fourth fireworks display with his wife near their home in 2018. The murderers— Michael Carleton and Travis Phillips—drove up behind Lee and shot him at point-blank range for no apparent reason near the corner of Dacia and Brookford Streets.

•An ugly altercation unfolded on April 2 at the busy intersection of Granite Avenue and Gallivan Boulevard involving a group of people on mopeds and a motorist and his passenger. The assault, which was recorded and went viral on social media, sent two people to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Thanh Le, a “one-man crime wave.”

•A Fields Corner man described by police as a “one-man crime wave” was the subject of a few crime stories throughout the year. In April, Thanh Le was charged with breaking into several area restaurants and had multiple open cases at Dorchester District Court. Later, in June, he allegedly took a stolen car the wrong way on an exit ramp of I-93 North while wearing a ski mask. A state trooper pursued him but broke off the chase. A few minutes later, Le lost control at Freeport Street, driving over the curb and hitting another vehicle. He then fled on foot. A confrontation ensued and Le was tased and taken to an area hospital for treatment. Later in the year, he was linked to a February incident where he violently pushed a woman down in Fields Corner and stole her purse.

•A Dorchester man was killed on April 12 when his arm became stuck in the door of a Red Line subway car as it pulled away from Broadway station. Robinson Lalin, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene. His fate sparked a major investigation of the MBTA by the National Transportation Safety Board.

•A federal judge on April 15 unsealed an indictment charging 19 members of the Dorchester-based Cameron Street gang with a variety of RICO violations dating to 2010 that include one murder, 33 attempted murders, 17 armed robberies, 19 unarmed robberies, including home invasions, one carjacking and selling crack, marijuana, and guns. Most of the members were rounded up by ATF agents and BPD officers. Feds said the gang had been terrorizing the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood for decades.

•Patrick Rose, a former president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA) and one-time C-11 officer, pleaded guilty in late April to raping six children over a period of 27 years. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mary Ames sentenced the 67-year-old Rose to 10 to 13 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation for the 21 counts of child rape and sexual assault.

A four-alarm fire at 19 Oakley St. on April 2 caused no injuries but significant damage to that home and the back of two homes on Corona Street. More than 100 firefighters fought the blaze. Seth Daniel photo

•School safety and violence was a prime concern in 2022 and seemed to come to a climax in Fields Corner at the former Boston Arts Academy (which has now moved to a new building in Fenway). In May during a rally in front of the school organized by parents and students, Lily Handy said one of her schoolmates nearly cut off her ear in a violent attack in the school.

•A 48-year-old man was shot dead by a Boston Police officer in Dorchester at about 2:40 a.m. on May 14 after the man allegedly attempted to stab another officer in the middle of Glendale Street. Two officers were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the male suspect — later identified as Richard Ortiz of Revere— was pronounced dead at the scene.

•A 32-year-old Dorchester man was accused in May of using a 3D printer in his Columbia Road home to manufacture guns and ammo that law enforcement officials say were meant to be trafficked on the streets of Boston. Edmilson Andrade, 32, was charged and it was the first big reference to “ghost guns,” which are weapons made almost entirely with parts manufactured with a 3D printer.

•Weekly road closings that started May 27 in Dorchester and Mattapan around Franklin Park riled some members of the community. But other residents say the closings have been in place for three years to curtail noise and quality-of-life concerns and have brought a sense of relief to the neighborhood. Either way, the situation highlights a sharp disagreement on how to handle concerns that emerged during the pandemic.

•At least 11 people were hurt in a series of shootings in Boston over the July Fourth weekend, including four men who were wounded in an incident on Bailey Street near Ashmont station that took place shortly after midnight on July 3. Three victims were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening wounds. A fourth man made it to a local hospital on his own, with non-life-threatening injuries. A male victim was more seriously injured by a shooting that happened on Mattapan’s Elizabeth Street around 2:19 a.m. on July 3.

• Paul F. Burke, a Roslindale native and father of three was appointed Boston’s fire commissioner on July 1. He succeeded Jack Dempsey, who retired after 35 years in the BFD ranks.

•Residents of 23 Lithgow St. were spared as a three-alarm fire raged through their Codman Square three-decker last week on a hot Friday afternoon, July 15. There were no injuries to civilians, but one firefighter suffered minor injuries and 17 people were displaced from the three-decker and the building next door.

•One of the most traumatic murders in 2022 came on July 27 when a 15-year-old boy was shot to death outside 28 Ellington St. in Dorchester. The victim— Curtis Ashford, Jr.— was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had recently graduated from the McCormack Middle School. Zontre Mack, 19, of Canton, was charged in the murder. Dominick Gavin, 25, of Boston, was charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder.

•Three people were shot— two fatally— at the three-decker home at 26 Melbourne St. early on Sept. 4. Boston Police were called to the scene around 3 a.m. One person died at the scene and a second person was pronounced dead at a local hospital. A third victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The victims who died were later named as Tefan Ivy, 32, of Brockton, and Jermaine Daye, 33, of Randolph.

•A student at Jeremiah Burke High School was listed in stable condition after he was shot by another student on school grounds outside the building on the morning of Oct. 4. A firearm was recovered, and a suspect was arrested shortly afterward. The incident occurred just weeks after a 17-year-old from Randolph allegedly stabbed a Burke High student in the shoulder while in the building.

•Jean McGuire, the 91-year-old civil rights and education activist, was stabbed on Oct. 11 in Franklin Park while walking her dog. The attack on McGuire, a former member of the Boston School Committee, outraged members of the community in the neighborhood around Franklin Park and ignited calls for better safety mechanisms in Franklin Park.

•A flurry of shooting incidents in Dorchester —including the brazen murder of a barber in his own store on Washington Street near Grove Hall— prompted renewed anxiety about an uptick in violence. In the killing incident, an unknown gunman burst into Celebrity Cuts barbershop and fired on Herman Maxwell Hylton, a 43-year-old Roxbury man who was a co-owner of the shop. He was cutting a young boy’s hair at the time of the assault. The shooting followed several murders in Dorchester and Mattapan, including the Oct. 4 shooting death of 19-year-old Christian Berryman. Fatal shootings in November were also logged on Orlando and Paxton streets.

•A seven-year-old child was relieved of a loaded gun by police at Dorchester’s UP Academy/Holland School on Oct. 27. On Dec. 9, a girl brought a firearm in a backpack to the Saint John Paul II Columbia Campus in Dorchester. The incidentIt was deemed accidental by authorities, who said a family member who had the gun was licensed to have it. He was summoned to court on charges related to the case.

•Gunfire erupted near Roberts Field on Nov.1 just as a football practice for the Dorchester Pop Warner program was ending. One person was injured when 14 bullets were fired near the Lee Academy Pilot School on Dunbar Avenue, close to the field, where many players, coaches and parents ducked for cover. The apparent target of the shooting suffered only minor injuries.

•Two men and a woman were arrested during a raid on a Lower Mills apartment in late November, where federal, state, and local investigators found 100 pounds of fentanyl powder and pills, three industrial pill-press machines, and numerous sealed Priority Mail envelopes containing pills that were ready to be dropped off at a local post office. The office said the seized fentanyl had a street value of about $2.25 million.

•More than 25 shots rang out at a Talbot Avenue tire shop just after school let out at the nearby Lee K-8 school on Dec. 5, sending two men to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The shootings occurred as several kids were in the after-school program at the BCYF Perkins community center across the street. Two unidentified teen-agers were arrested and police arrested Sydeeq Murchinson, 18, of Dorchester, on Dec. 21 for charges related to the event.

•A major City Council-sponsored hearing on Dec. 17 at the Lilla Frederick Middle School on Columbia Road addressed public safety challenges amidst a long stretch of shootings, homicides, and aggravated assaults. The hearing allowed residents, police, and city officials to speak candidly about a situation that many said felt out of control and ignored.