A Mattapan woman who helped thousands of patients during her decades-long career at Boston Medical Center was mourned by friends and neighbors Sunday, following a deadly triple shooting Saturday at her home that claimed her life.
Eleanor Maloney, 74, was killed in the shooting at 17 Mattapan St. around 5 p.m. Saturday, according to Sergeant John Boyle, a Boston Police spokesman.
Maloney, friends and neighbors said, was originally from Barbados; she was a grandmother who had lived on the residential street for decades.
“She was an angel. She was so sweet. She loved everything,” said Phyllis David, who worked with Maloney for about 20 years at Boston Medical Center. “She didn’t have a mean bone in her body.”
Maloney was an innocent bystander struck by gunfire, police officials have confirmed.
Police on Sunday continued their investigation into the shooting, which also left two men with non-life-threatening injuries. No arrests had been made by Sunday afternoon, Boyle said.
Maloney’s death is the city’s eighth homicide this year, according to Boyle. There were 14 at the same time last year.
At the shooting scene, police tape was wrapped around the handle of an open door and tied to the iron railings of the building’s porch. Police officers at the house screened visitors who wanted to see Maloney’s family. The family could not be reached Sunday.
David told reporters that Maloney retired from the hospital about two years ago after working in its operating room. “We were like this,” David said, holding up her hand, fingers crossed.
Maloney was on the job during the day of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, helping with the hospital’s response to the wounded, David said.
Maloney worked for 44 years at Boston Medical Center until she left in February 2015, said Dave Kibbe, a hospital spokesman.
David, who is also retired, went to the family home with a former colleague, Keila Price, to pay their respects Sunday.
“She is going to be dearly missed,” David said.
A small memorial consisting of flowers and lighted candles appeared near the shooting scene Sunday afternoon.
Pernell Pereira, 34, has lived on Mattapan Street since he was 13 and has known the victim much of his life, he said.
She would always be sitting on her porch in good weather. When Pereira would walk by, he would stop and catch up with her, he said. “I can’t make sense of that,” he said. “She was a real good woman.”
Ricky Wideman drove to Mattapan from New Bedford with his two grandchildren Sunday to visit Maloney’s family. Wideman has known Maloney for years.
“This is a mother. It could have been my mother, it could have been your mother,” Wideman said. “This is not right.”
“She was always smiling, no matter what,” he said.
Bishop William Dickerson of Greater Love Tabernacle in Dorchester said he prayed with members of Maloney’s family on Sunday. Maloney herself was not a member of the church, he said.
During services Sunday, Dickerson talked about how the community must respond to the violence.
“We cannot allow a mother and grandmother to die in the streets of Boston, and not say anything, and not stand up,” Dickerson said. “We’re obligated to stand up; we’re obligated to support this family.”
On Sunday, there was a visible police presence on Mattapan Street, with officers on the sidewalk talking to residents.
Police were also posted at a triple decker a few doors down the street. Police did not provide information about why officers were there.
Despite the police, neighbor Noelle Stewart said she remained afraid of the prospect of more violence.
Stewart, 57, was in the kitchen of her daughter’s home Saturday afternoon when she heard what she described as a “barrage” of at least six shots ringing out across the street.
She lives in the house with her husband, daughter, and four grandchildren, she said.
Her grandchildren’s room faces the street, and her 7-year-old grandson was in the room at the time, she recalled. After hearing the shots, she yelled for him to run from the room and hide under a bed in another room. “I said, ‘Run, get up!’ ” Stewart said.
Her daughter’s car, parked feet from the window of her grandchildren’s room, was struck twice by bullets, she said. One punctured a tire, and the other struck the windshield. It was towed by police to search for evidence, she said.
The shooting that claimed the life of her neighbor has left her shaken to her core, Stewart said.
“It’s not anger. It’s frustration, it’s devastation. I’m shocked,” Stewart said.
Now she is uncertain whether she and her family can be safe in their own home.
“It really scares me. . . . This is not the kind of lifestyle anyone wants to have,” Stewart said.
The shooting also frightened a 15-year-old girl who lives farther down the street and said she heard several shots Saturday.
“I thought this was a safe street in Mattapan,” the teen said, who declined to give her name.
Her mother, who also declined to give her name, said, “Any violence anywhere makes you feel less safe.”
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.
Correction: Because of information provided by Boston police, an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of homicides in Boston at this point in 2018.