Family recalls shooting victim as animal lover, devoted brother

Clarence McGregor was a 2006 graduate of West Roxbury High, his mother said.

The family of homicide victim Clarence McGregor described him Thursday as a tae kwon do black belt with a soft spot for animals. When he was 10, his mother said, he rescued a flock of ducks that had run into the middle of the street and ended up adopting one as a pet. When he was about 12, she said, he scored first place in a national tae kwon do tournament in Florida and took home a trophy taller than he was.

“He had a heart for animals,” said McGregor’s mother, Robin McGregor. “My son loved people, and he was very protective of those he loved.”

McGregor, 25, of Dorchester, was shot to death early Monday morning on Rosewood Street in Mattapan, along with his friend Teasia Montgomery, 28, of Medford. Just six hours earlier, Montgomery’s former boyfriend Julien Printemps, 22, of Charlestown, was shot to death in Ashmont.

Police said the shootings, along with a fourth — of Trevain Keene, 22, of Boston, who was shot to death in Dorchester Friday — are probably related gang killings.

McGregor was convicted on a gun charge in 2006, according to authorities. But Robin McGregor said that her son was not in a gang, that he was simply with a friend in the wrong place at the wrong time.

McGregor’s mother said that he had graduated from West Roxbury High School in 2006 and briefly attended Bunker Hill Community College. He went to school for appliance repair, she said.

“He wanted to be a lot of things,” said Robin McGregor. “He liked working with computers. He wanted to be a policeman. He wanted to work with young kids. . . . He wanted to be a barber.”

McGregor came from a big family, said his mother. He had four brothers and two sisters, one his twin, with whom he was very close.

Montgomery’s mother declined to speak about her daughter.

A family friend, Joanne Sims of West Medford, said she knew Montgomery as a little girl and as a young adult.

“I can tell you Teasia was a sweet girl,” said Sims, who said that the last time that she saw Montgomery she was trying to get her life together.

“She wanted to make something of herself,” Sims said. “She wanted to do something, be something.”

Montgomery was convicted in 2009 of perjury in Suffolk Superior Court, and in Dorchester District Court she was convicted on charges of possession with intent to distribute a Class B substance, according to authorities and court records. At the time of her death, she had an open case on drug charges.

Police have not made arrests in any of the four related killings, which brought the number of homicides in Boston to nine this year.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Police Commissioner William Evans have called for an end to gang violence, and police officials met Wednesday with clergy to discuss ways to get guns off the street.