Sponsor:

A man who relatives said was trying to break up a fight in Dorchester was fatally shot yesterday and weekend violence left another man dead in Roxbury, police said.

The attacks pushed the number of people slain in Boston this year to 20, one more than on this date in 2005 -- a year that saw 75 homicides, the most in a decade.

Police did not name the victims, but a woman who said she was the Dorchester shooting victim's sister identified him as Luis DoSouto, a 25-year-old cook at the Bayside Expo & Conference Center.

Police said last night they had arrested William Badgett, 19, of Mattapan, and Darnell Ricks, 18, yesterday morning after they were stopped with a firearm. Police subsequently investigated their ties to DoSouto's killing and charged them in connection with the slaying.

Police said Badgett has been charged with murder and unlawful possession of a firearm, and Ricks with being an accessory after the fact to a murder.

At about 2 a.m. yesterday, DoSouto was at a house party on Hamilton Street in Dorchester, across the street from his house, when an argument broke out between two unidentified people, said the sister, Tereza DoSouto.

Luis DoSouto tried to intervene, she said. ''He tried to step in and stop the argument, but they took it outside," she said yesterday on Hamilton Street. ''My brother followed them outside and he tried to stop the fight, but that's when he got shot."

Someone called 911, and police arrived at about 2:13 a.m. to find the victim lying on the ground, said Officer John Boyle, a police spokesman. Boyle said the victim was brought to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:35 a.m.

About six hours prior to that slaying, the weekend's first homicide claimed the life of a man several miles away on Carmel Street in Roxbury, Boyle said. Police, who responded to a 911 call at about 8:16 p.m., found the victim in an alleyway, suffering from severe head trauma, Boyle said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

No one has been arrested in connection with that killing, police said.

Yesterday evening on Hamilton Street, about 30 relatives and neighbors who knew Luis DoSouto gathered, weeping, praying, and recalling a man whom the victim's cousin, Zinha Goncalves, described as a ''gentle giant who wouldn't hurt anyone."

Mourners set up a makeshift memorial of flowers, candles, and pictures on a sidewalk several feet from where Luis DoSouto had been shot.

Born in Cape Verde, DoSouto came to the Boston area soon after his first birthday, relatives said. The fourth-oldest of 12 siblings, he attended Madison Park High School before finding a job at the Bayside Expo Center.

''He worked and he came home, that's all he did," Lopes said. ''He was not into violence or fighting. I don't think he's ever been in a fight."

Emmett Folgert, director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, a nonprofit group that tries to promote peace among young people, said the weekend slayings underscored the need to provide activities for young people, especially as summer vacation approaches.

''In the past when we've faced these problems, we've closed ranks and come up with an extra effort, especially with the summer looming," Folgert said. ''And I have faith that we're going to do that again." ( from The Boston GLobe)

Brought to you by:

What's wrong with the way Cape Verdean parents raise their kids that you find cousins killing cousins?

Maybe one way to stop this violent bloodshed among gang groups is to get them together aroud the a table and ask them to smoke the Indian Peace Pipe and settle this turf the old fashion way.

However, certainly parents need to rethink the way they raise and educate their kids because what they are doing now is definetely not working.

Police move to quell violence: Extra patrols, cameras ordered after deaths

Boston police began saturating Cape Verdean neighborhoods with extra patrols last night and will install surveillance cameras, as police and city officials work to prevent further bloodshed.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered the moves yesterday, saying that he is worried about reprisals after seven people have been found killed in the last week, including two men gunned down in Cape Verdean neighborhoods known for retaliatory violence.

''One homicide is too many, but seven in seven days? I'm very concerned," Menino said.

Police declined to detail the added patrols, which they say have helped tamp down surges in violence in other neighborhoods. Officials did not know how many cameras would be installed or where. The cameras were bought for the Democratic National Convention, but the city only recently launched plans to use them in high-crime neighborhoods.

The seven recent killings are one-third of the 21 so far this year and two ahead of the pace last year, when the city recorded 75, the most in a decade. Police reported yesterday there had been 137 shootings through Sunday, compared to 73 over the same period last year.

Only two of the homicide victims last year were of Cape Verdean descent, and at the start of the year some police officials and Cape Verdean community leaders commented on the relative calm.

But since January, there has been a resurgence in Cape Verdean gang violence, a senior police official with direct knowledge of the department's strategy said yesterday.

Tensions increased after 18-year-old Guiliardo Rodrigues was shot to death last month on a Dorchester street where police say there is gang activity. Then the fatal shooting early Saturday of Luis DoSouto on Hamilton Street in Dorchester, a hot spot for Cape Verdean gangs, prompted police to prepare for retaliation Saturday night, another police official said.

While police arrested two men in the shooting of DoSouto who they say were not known gang members, the second official said, police still worried about the possibility that DoSouto's friends on Hamilton Street might retaliate against people associated with rival Wendover Street.

Saturday night, Alex Mendes, 24, who family members said spoke out against violence, was shot dead on Wendover Street, where he was standing outside with friends. His mother, Isaura Mendes, is well known in the Cape Verdean community for her antiviolence activism, which began after an older son, Bobby, was stabbed to death in 1995.

Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole said police are investigating the possibility that Mendes was the victim of retaliatory violence provoked by DoSouto's death. She declined to discuss specifics, saying the case is ongoing.

Gilson Ribeiro, 18, of Brockton, who used to live in Mendes's neighborhood, went to Wendover Street yesterday to visit his cousin. Ribeiro said he believes that Mendes was killed in retaliation.

''That's the way it's been," he said. ''It ain't going to stop. Police can be here 24/7, and people will still find a way to shoot each other."

But John Barros, a Cape Verdean community leader, said he believes that Mendes was not targeted. ''He was 12 when his brother was killed, and ever since then he's been the average kid in the neighborhood," Barros said. ''That bullet wasn't meant for him."

The man accused of killing DoSouto is not Cape Verdean, Barros said, adding that it is unfair to assume that Mendes was killed as a result of Cape Verdean gang violence.

''It's just not that clear-cut," he said. ''Unfortunately, you've got a bunch of kids out there with guns answering conflicts with guns."

Police officials and community leaders familiar with Cape Verdean gangs said it is difficult to predict when and where violence will flare, in part because many of the groups are feuding internally or constantly shift alliances.

But Menino said it is clear that violence begets violence in the community.

''We know in the past, when there's a slight rise in violence, it usually percolates, and other shootings come out of that," he said yesterday. ''We want to stop it before it spreads."

O'Toole, who is facing media reports that she is leaving office to take a job in Ireland, said yesterday that she remains focused on fighting crime in Boston.

She said her commanders have asked district captains to prepare reports about all gang conflicts.

''We want to save these kids; the killing has to stop," O'Toole said. ''The Cape Verdean violence has been sporadic. We went through a fairly quiet period there for a while. All of a sudden, things are heating up again, and we need to get to the bottom of it."

The mayor said plans are also underway to work with Cape Verdean community leaders. He said he met yesterday at City Hall with several of them, asking the leaders to arrange meetings with parents to discuss the importance of ''having trust in the police."

Barros said he asked police at the meeting to treat the community with respect as they deploy more officers. He said police told him they would focus on arresting criminals with warrants and would not indiscriminately stop and search residents.

He said he hopes to take advantage of the discussions with city officials to bolster what he described as a less-than-perfect relationship between police and Cape Verdean residents.

''I expect to talk to the mayor about . . . how they deploy and how to rebuild the relationship with the Police Department," Barros said. ''Could relations be better? . . . We can always strengthen what we do together."
(From Boston.com)

How can you fight violence and stop it in a country where the culture glorifies violence and rewards violent villans with millions of dollars for their bloodly movies, video games and cartoons?

America was born from violence and lives and profits on violence - The English people violently killed millions of the Native Americans and steel the land from them; the founding father used violence to take the country from the hands of Britain and get the independence; the South was forced to subdue to the North and join the Union through violence; the hollywood makes billions and billions of dollars every year in entertaining us with violent movies and shows; etc, etc, etc. So, how can one really stop a phenomena that the general public is in love with?

Friends say Mendes feared a violent end

Alex Mendes feared that he would die violently, like his brother Bobby.

He predicted so during a speech to mothers who lost children to violence several weeks ago in Birmingham, England, where local police had invited him and his mother, Isaura, a family friend said yesterday.

''You might never see me again," he told the women, according to Bishop Filipe Teixeira of St. Martin De Porres Church in Dorchester, who said he heard the story from Mendes when the 24-year-old returned from England in April. On Saturday, Mendes told a cousin to stay off the streets because ''things were heating up," said Hal Cohen, a longtime family friend.

Later that night, a white car stopped in front of a Wendover Street building where Mendes was standing with friends. Someone in the car fired into the group, fatally hitting Mendes in the back, his friends and witnesses said yesterday. The shooting occurred just a few blocks from the intersection where Bobby Mendes was stabbed to death in 1995.

Yesterday, as Mendes's mother arranged a funeral for her youngest son, friends struggled to understand why a man they said abhorred violence was slain.

Several Wendover Street residents and friends of the Mendes family blamed the shooting on a resurgence in Cape Verdean gang violence since January. ''I don't even believe it," said Ann Fernandes, 46, whose own son, Chris Resende, was fatally shot at a Sweet 16 party in Dorchester in 2000. She last saw Mendes Saturday, when he walked by her on the street and paused to say hello.

Yesterday, she stood on Wendover Street, looking at the candles and the stuffed dog someone had placed on the bottom of the wooden steps of the multifamily apartment building where he fell.

Mendes was a working as a security guard at Citizens Bank in Uphams Corner and had been living with his parents on Groom Street, a few blocks from where he was shot.

Isaura Mendes stood in her hallway yesterday, surrounded by relatives and friends, and said her son had given her strength after his brother was killed. She declined to comment further.

On Wendover Street, friends spoke of a good-natured man who used to buy neighborhood children ice cream and laughed easily.

''He's peaceful," Yuri DePina, 19, said. ''I never saw him in trouble."

Mendes had a minor record for traffic infractions and a 2002 charge of marijuana possession that was dismissed. But friends said he detested violence.

As a member of St. Martin's Young Cape Verdeans Club, Mendes often walked through Dorchester looking for at-risk youth who needed mentoring, Teixeira said.

The night he died, he went to visit friends on Wendover Street with his older brother, Teixeira said. Mendes was laughing and talking with friends shortly after 10 p.m., recalled a 17-year-old resident who said she saw Mendes seconds before he was shot.

The teenager, her 3-month-old son, the teenager's mother, and a cousin sat in a Toyota Camry as it passed by the laughing group. The teenager recalled waving at Mendes, who smiled and waved back.

As the family drove down Wendover Street, they heard several gunshots, then the sound of a car pulling away. Terrified, they began to speed down Wendover, but the car caught up with them, forcing the women to pull over. Then more shots rang out before the gunmen's car drove away.

''They shot at us eight times," said the teenager's mother, who believes they were targeted because the gunmen thought they were witnesses. Police would not confirm that the family was targeted, but the Globe is withholding the family's name because they may have witnessed a crime.

''I've been inside since this happened," the teen's mother said yesterday as she sat on her bed. ''I'm not going out. I'm scared to go outside."(from Boston.com)

O Great Spirit of our Ancestors, I raise my pipe to you, to your messengers the four winds, and to Mother Earth who provides for your children. Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, to respect, and to be kind to each other so that they may grow with peace in mind. Let us learn to share all the good things that you provide for us on this Earth.

Sandra we have that problem