As children played nearby, four men are shot in Dorchester

Fayston Street in Dorchester was the scene of a shooting Wednesday.John Cetrino for The Boston Globe

Four men were shot on a Dorchester street Wednesday, just a few feet from where children were playing outside, police said.

The men were shot on Fayston Street around 6:40 p.m., police said. One of the men was critically injured and was taken to Boston Medical Center, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said at the scene. The other three men are expected to survive.

The men ranged in age from 22 to late 40s, Evans said.

Just down the street from the shooting, children were playing on an inflatable bouncy castle at an outdoor cookout.

“We’re real lucky a young kid didn’t get killed,” Evans said. “Instead of fighting with hands, people are pulling out guns with young children 20 yards away. The community should be outraged.”

Evans said the shooting broke out after an argument at a house party spilled into the street. Three different types of bullet casings were found at the scene, suggesting that multiple people fired their weapons, he said.

One of the victims drove away in a car but was stopped within a few blocks and taken to the hospital, Evans said. Another man took himself to the hospital, and the remaining two were found at the scene.

“The community’s got to step up and stop this nonsense,” Evans said. “We can’t have gunshots ringing out with little kids in a bouncy thing 20 yards away.”

Homicide unit investigators blocked off several streets, interviewed residents, and took crime scene photos. Several evidence markers were visible on the street and sidewalk. Nearby, the cookout with the bouncy castle continued.

Maria DeRosa, who lives nearby, said she was inside when she heard six or seven gunshots.

“The first inkling was [that] it was firecrackers, but then I said, ‘No, it’s too steady,’ ” she said.

When she looked out her window, she saw a man run down the street, then fall to the ground.

“I think he might have been hit,” she said.

After calling police, she returned to her window and the man was no longer there.

DeRosa and several other neighbors said violence has been a problem in the area, particularly on Fayston Street.

“It’s the middle of the day, it’s a cookout, and they’re firing,” she said. “One of those kids could’ve been hit. I could’ve been hit. It’s ridiculous.”

Neighbors said it’s common for children to play in the street.

“It’s terrible,” Shantia Rossetti said. “I live right here, so now it’s just like, If they retaliate, me or my kids could come out and get shot.”

In a separate incident Wednesday, a man suffered life-threatening injuries after being shot at the corner of Brookford and Dacia streets in Roxbury, according to Officer James Kenneally, a Boston police spokesman. He was taken to a local hospital shortly before 10 p.m.