Boston police have identified several “persons of interest” and released surveillance photographs they hope will spur leads in a deadly shooting that shocked the city a year ago Monday, taking the lives of three 22-year-old women who had just attended a festival and cookout together.
“We have several persons of interest at this stage, but we’re keeping an open mind and considering everything,” said Sergeant Detective Richard Daley, who is leading the investigation.
Daley said his team has developed a “good foundation of evidence” in the case, which has been complicated by unwillingness of some who may have evidence to talk to police, but he declined to say whether authorities are close to making arrests.
Four women toasted their friendship at the Dominican Festival at the Shattuck Picnic Grove in Franklin Park last Aug. 12 before they got into a car and drove to Harlem Street in Dorchester.
At 9:22 p.m., as the women sat in the car, rapid gunfire rang out. Sharrice Perkins, who lived on the street, Genevieve Phillip, and Kristen Lartey were shot to death; a fourth friend survived a gunshot wound in the leg. Police have said that one of the four women was targeted, but declined to say which one. The name of the survivor has not been released by authorities out of consideration for her safety.
Some witnesses have testified before a Suffolk County grand jury investigating the case, but it was unclear if the surviving victim was among them.
On Friday, police released a grainy surveillance photograph of a white sport utility vehicle, believed to be a newer model Saturn Vue or Chevrolet Captiva, that was traveling along Harlem Street at the time of the shootings. The vehicle is not the same as the one captured in a surveillance video that was widely published in the days following the killings.
Police also released two slightly blurry surveillance pictures of the crowd at the cookout, which numbered at least 100. Authorities are asking anyone who attended and who may have any pertinent information to contact police.
Daley said police have looked over text messages either sent or received by one or more of the victims at the cookout, but he declined to state the nature of those messages. He also declined to say whether the assailants were also at the gathering.
“We believe this case can be solved, and we believe there are people out there who have specific information that can help us solve it,’’ said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. “Those individuals need to step up and share their knowledge with police and prosecutors. Friends and family members who may have a hunch about someone’s involvement need to impress upon them the importance of coming forward.”
Perkins, a former engineering student at Roxbury Community College who was working as a hotel clerk, died within minutes of being shot. Lartey, who had graduated from St. John’s University two months prior and was looking for a job, died almost instantly. She was active in youth ministries at Family Life Fellowship church in Hyde Park, where her father was pastor.
Phillip, the mother of a 5-year-old girl, was hit at least seven times and died hours later at Boston Medical Center. She aspired to open a beauty salon and was scheduled to begin classes two days later at Empire Beauty School in Boston.
“It concerns me that we haven't found answers on it yet,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “I know police are working on it.”
The mayor said he had spoken with community members about an appropriate way to remember the victims on the anniversary of the attack.
On Harlem Street, where the barrage of gunfire transformed a calm Sunday evening into one of the most violent nights in the city’s history, many residents wondered if justice will ever be served.
“Well, right after it happened, we were all thinking that someone would be caught soon, at least after a couple of months, but here we are a year later, and still not a word,” said Betty Jenkins, 78, who has lived on the street for 30 years and whose granddaughter used to play with Perkins, when the two were children.
Jenkins recalled how her granddaughter and Perkins sat on the steps of her house reading books and would jump rope on the sidewalk.
Then Jenkins looked at the sidewalk a short distance away and recalled that warm Sunday night a year ago, hearing the gunshots that seemed so close she thought it was at her front door.
There was screaming and the sound of people rushing outside and of sirens drawing closer, she said. When she walked outside, she saw Perkins’s body lying on the sidewalk and another woman on a stretcher.
“That seemed like yesterday, but a whole year has passed and the killer is still out there,” Jenkins said.
A memorial of candles, posters, and mementos honoring the victims placed near the Perkins’s home was taken down about eight months ago, and at least one resident has moved away from the street.
Edith Watson, a grandmother in her 60s who has lived virtually her whole life on Harlem Street and watched a generation of children become adults and move away, knew Perkins well.
“Very nice young lady, I saw her grow up,” Watson said from her second-floor balcony as she tended to her grandchild.
“My only question is: What are the police doing? It makes you wonder if they’re doing anything at all, that maybe they stopped looking.”
Watson noted how swiftly investigators closed in on a suspect in the July 23 murder of Amy Lord, 24, who worked at a digital marketing and Web design firm in the South End. Watson questioned whether police have been as vigorous in their investigation of the triple homicide.
The day after the Lord homicide, police arrested Edwin J. Alemany, 28, a former busboy and maintenance man, in assaults on two other women, and he faces arraignment on murder charges in the Lord case.
Daley said comparisons should not be drawn between the cases. “Just because the case hasn’t gotten a lot of publicity doesn’t mean it has been sitting on a shelf collecting dust,” he said. “Every investigation is different. . . . Some have multiple witnesses; some zero. You’ve got to be patient sometimes and wait for the doors to open.”
Brian Ballou can be reached
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