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Shaun O. Harrison, formerly of Dorchester, is serving a 26-year prison sentence after a court convicted him in 2018 of assault with intent to murder and a slew of other crimes, the Associated Press said. On Friday, a judge ruled the former Dean of Students at English High School should pay his victim $7.5 million for pain and suffering, $2.5 million for punitive damages, and $80,000 in medical bills, the news agency added.
Harrison was a member of a violent street gang called the Latin Kings while working at the Jamaica Plains high school. Students called him "Rev" for his outreach work, officials said. But he shattered that illusion in 2015 when Harrison was seen on surveillance video shooting a 17-year-old in the back of the head over a drug debt, court records show.
Harrison recruited the teenager to sell marijuana, but the teacher wasn't happy when the teenager didn't sell enough of the drug, reports said. Harrison arraigned to have the boy attacked at school, and later that night, he lured the boy to the area of Magazine Street with the promise of girls and drugs. But the meeting was an ambush.
The bullet barely missed the teenager's brain stem and arteries in his neck, the AP said. It crashed through his jaw bone, which required multiple surgeries to repair. Doctors wired the boy's mouth shut for nine months. He still suffers from facial neuropathy, hearing loss, and an inability to open and close his eyelids without specialized weights, the report said. He also said he still has facial paralysis and suffers a great deal of pain from the wound.
When Boston police searched Harrison's home after his arrest, officers found handguns, a rifle, a shotgun, ammunition, "trafficking weight" of cocaine, and a large amount of marijuana, police said. There was also a large gang mural inside his Pompeii Street apartment.
The former student also sued the Boston Public School system, but the judge threw out that case, the Associate Press reported. The man's attorney is appealing the ruling.
“Boston Public Schools was absolutely dismissive of student safety and grossly negligent when it allowed a predator to have a position of trust and authority at that school after multiple incidents that should have resulted in his termination,” attorney John Martin told the news outlet.
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