14-year-old boy dies in midday Roxbury shooting

A 14-year boy died Monday following a shooting in Roxbury that left another juvenile wounded, police said, as authorities and local clergy decried the recent increase of violence in the city.

Boston police received a report of gunshots at an apartment at 2990 Washington St. just after noon, said Deputy Superintendent James W. Miller, according to audio of a news conference at the scene provided to the Globe.

Officers found one male suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside an apartment, Miller said. That victim was taken to a local hospital, where he later died, Officer Andre Watson said Monday evening.

Officers found a second male victim suffering from gunshot wounds nearby on Cobden Street, Miller said. The second victim was also hospitalized, but his wounds were not considered life-threatening.

No other details were immediately available about the crime or the victims.

The 14-year-old boy was the third juvenile to die from gun violence in Boston this year.

Jucelena Gomes, 16, was shot near Codman Square in Dorchester on Jan. 2, the first homicide this year. On July 27, 15-year-old Curtis Ashford Jr. was shot dead on a side street in Dorchester near Franklin Park.

A week ago, an 18-year-old student was shot and wounded by a fellow student after a fight outside the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester around 9:30 a.m. The shooting came just three weeks after a stabbing inside the high school.

Mayor Michelle Wu said that “any incident of violence in Boston is unacceptable and the trauma ripples through our communities.”

“We are working relentlessly alongside our public safety officials and community partners to support youth development, safe streets and violence intervention,” Wu said in a statement. “This requires a whole community approach, and I know our residents and partners share the urgency for public health and safety.”

At the news conference Monday, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said there are too many guns on the streets, and called for the community’s support in curbing violence.

Hayden also said he is worried about the number of recent daytime shootings, saying he does not think there were as many when he was an assistant district attorney for the DA’s homicide response team.

“I don’t remember responding to this many daytime shootings,” he said. “There seem to be more and more of them, and we are concerned with what appears to be an increase in reckless conduct with firearms during the day, when people are out in the community.”

The Rev. Miniard Culpepper, senior pastor at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Dorchester, said the cumulative effect of the recent youth violence was alarming.

“Obviously, you look at what happened at the Burke last week, and at what’s going on now,” Culpepper said in a phone interview Monday night. “First of all, we pray for that family of a 14-year-old. But there also has to be an intentional effort to respond to the youth violence that we’re experiencing in the city.”

He pointed to concerted efforts in the late 1990s to help curb Boston’s youth homicide rate as a way to target the problem now.

“The entire city — the mayor, the police commissioner, the faith community, the Public Health Commission, the street workers, the pastors, the activists — everyone has to come together,” Culpepper added. ”It’s not something that we haven’t dealt with before. But it’s now time for all of us to come together, to respond in an intentional way.”

Overall, crime in Boston fell in 2021, bucking national trends, as the Globe has previously reported. The number of aggravated assaults in the city was up slightly in the first half of this year, but homicides, rapes, and robberies continue to decline, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

The shootings on Monday are believed to be an isolated incident, according to police spokesman Sergeant Detective John Boyle.

No arrests have been made, Hayden said.

Correspondent Camilo Fonseca contibuted to this report.