A 19-year-old man was in critical condition after he was shot several times Saturday afternoon in a courtyard on Stratton Street in Dorchester, according to Boston Police.
Police arrived at the scene in the 100 block of Stratton Street just after 2 p.m.
“That’s why I don’t let my kids play outside,” said a woman who lives in one of the apartments surrounding the courtyard, who declined to give her name out of fear for her safety, as did others interviewed at the scene.
“They need to do something about it,” she said.
Witnesses said they heard six to 10 shots ring out.
The woman said that a group of teenagers, mostly young men, hangs out in the courtyard and smokes marijuana.
Another woman whose apartment overlooks the courtyard said she heard about 10 shots and ran downstairs to see what had happened.
She saw a young man lying wounded on his stomach, alone in the courtyard, she said. The woman said she did not recognize him. Her neighbor called police, she said.
A man who was standing on Stratton Street when the shooting occurred said he heard about seven or eight gunshots, then ran into the courtyard, where he saw the young man wounded and lying on his stomach on the grass. He said the man had been shot in the back, but was alert and conscious. The victim was saying that he was in pain and going to die, according to the man.
Much of the courtyard was roped off with yellow caution tape Saturday afternoon. A neon green and black jacket lay on the grass, and a white shirt was draped over a concrete post.
At least six yellow evidence markers were scattered across the ground.
Evan Allen can be reached at evan.allen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @evanmallen.