UPDATE: Murders on Mascot Street linked, according to one victim's mom

UPDATE: Murders on Mascot Street linked, according to one victim's mom

By Bill Forry

http://www.dotnews.com/
Nov. 10, 2010

Mascot Street death investigation

Sunday: One shooting, one dead; Tuesday: 2d body across the street
Boston Police are investigating whether the body of a 19 year-old man found dead in the driveway of a Mascot Street property on Tuesday morning was a second victim of a shooting incident early on Sunday morning that left a teenager dead. Today, the mother of the man found dead on Tuesday said that in fact her son was also shot — and had been missing since Saturday night.

Boston Police were called to the area of 64 Mascot Street about one o’clock Sunday morning for a report of shots fired. At the scene, Area B-3 officers found a male victim suffering from “what appeared to be a gunshot wound.” The victim — a 17 year old from Brockton who has not yet been identified — was taken to Boston Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Two days later, on Tuesday morning, Boston Police were called to 63 Mascot Street – which sits directly across the street from No. 64 – where the body of a 19-year-old man was found in the driveway next to a two-family house. The Reporter has learned that man found dead on Tuesday is 19 year-old Nervin Charlot, who lives at a residence on Chipman Street, about seven blocks away from the murder scene.

The homicide unit was called to the scene Tuesday, but the man’s death has not yet been ruled a homicide, according to BPD spokesperson Elaine Driscoll, nor had any determination been made as to how long the body had been there. The man’s remains were being examined today by the state medical examiner’s office, said Driscoll, in an effort to ascertain cause of death and identification.

Sources familiar with the case told the Reporter that BPD investigators believe that the body found on Tuesday morning may well be connected to the shooting there on Sunday.

“They missed it,” said one source.

Charlot's mother tells the Reporter that her son had been missing since Saturday night. The family went to BPD headquarters on Monday morning to report him missing and were told to check for him at Boston Medical Center. On Tuesday, the family spoke to police and were told that he was — in fact— the man found dead in the Mascot Street driveway that morning.

Marie Charlot, the victim's mother, told the Reporter that police told her that her son was shot and that the murder is connected to the shooting on Sunday.

The possible connection is all the more mysterious because of the passage of two full days between the Sunday shooting and the discovery of the second body. The spot where neighbors saw the body, which was found lying face-down in the dirt driveway of 63 Mascot, was clearly visible from the front sidewalk.

Jimmy Adams, 70, lives several doors away on Mascot Street and was home when Sunday’s shooting took place. Adams said he saw police officers looking into yards and searching the street for evidence. He said he can’t understand how anyone would have missed seeing a second body that night or in the intervening two days.

Adams was one of several neighbors who inspected the second man’s body on Tuesday around 9 a.m. He says that police were called to the scene by another neighbor who spotted the corpse, which was clad in a red cap, grey jacket and jeans, lying face down near the end of the driveway at 63 Mascot. To make things curiouser, Adams said that there was no blood evident on or around the body.

The unoccupied two-family house at that address has become a problem in recent years. It was foreclosed on in 2007 and has been without tenants since then, according to neighbors. Adams says the home has been empty since its owner died in a car accident and that it has recently become a magnet for teens to hang out and drink in the yard.

If Charlot's death is in fact ruled a homicide and linked to Sunday’s shooting, it would mark the second time in two years in Area B-3 that a murder victim went undiscovered after police were called to an outdoor shooting scene.

On the night of May 13, 2009, police units responded to Wilcock Street for reports of shots fired. A search that night did not locate any victims, although police did stop a car filled with men suspected of firing the shots. Hours later, after sunrise, police were called back to the scene and discovered the body of 49-year-old Freddie Bing, who was shot multiple times and found slumped between two cars on the street. A 17-year-old from Dorchester, Damante Burrell, has been indicted for first-degree murder in that case.

Adams said that Mascot Street has been a relatively peaceful street for most of the 16 years he has lived there. In 2006, a teenager was shot to death on adjacent Ballou Street, but Adams says that — by and large— Mascot Street has not been known as a hot spot for violence. But the events of recent days have given him pause.

“This used to be a really nice street,” said Adams. “I don’t feel safe here anymore.”

The 17-year-old murdered on Mascot Street on Sunday is the 18th homicide victim of the year in Area B-3, the police district that covers this part of Dorchester along with Mattapan. Last year, during the same period, 7 people were killed in B-3. The man found dead on Tuesday— if ruled a homicide victim— would be the city of Boston’s 66th victim of 2010.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470.

Pat Tarantino contributed to this article.