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Zontre Mack, 19, of Canton, and Dominick Gavin, 25, of Boston, were arraigned on first-degree murder in the killing of Curtis Ashford Jr. on Ellington Street on July 27, the Suffolk County District Attorney said. Mack, who is also charged with illegal weapon and communication possession, is being held without bail. The magistrate gave Gavin, who also faces an accessory after the fact of murder charge, a $75,000 bond, authorities said.
Surveillance video of the shooting showed Mack get out of a car that Gavin was driving and fire multiple times into a group of people, the prosecutor said. Ashford was shot as he tried to get away. Responders rushed him to a nearby hospital, but it was too late. Doctors pronounced him dead when he arrived, the prosecutor said.
Curtis Ashford's family told said the recent eighth-grade graduate had just left his home a few minutes before the shooting to meet up with friends at Dorchester park. He was supposed to start high school in the fall.
"He's a kid. He didn't deserve that," Dale Deeble, who spoke with Ashford minutes before he was shot, told NBC Boston. "When I see him walking up the street, the energy, the smile... But when you hear this happen, it's like, he's a kid."
The shooting drew condemnation and consolation from the city's leaders.
"Anytime there is any incident of gun violence in our community, it is absolutely unacceptable," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said. "When we see the loss of life, and particularly a young child, we are all robbed of the potential, the life, that was ahead of this young person. I am deeply devastated and here with community members to say we need to get guns off of our streets."
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