Community mourns victims of Mattapan shooting

BOSTON -- Police are continuing to search for the person or people who killed four people in Mattapan on Tuesday.

Two men, a mother and her toddler son were all shot and killed. A fifth victim was clinging to life Wednesday.

Emotions flowed at the murder scene and at a community meeting nearby where the grandmother of Amani Smith, the 2-year-old murder victim, broke down in front of the police commissioner.

The 2-year-old's aunt, Avis Springette, said she was shocked by the shooting.

"It's hard for me to believe that someone would basically do something like that to an innocent baby. He didn't get a chance to live his life, to have kids, to get married, to do anything. My nephew is gone and I still want to know why it happened," said Springette.

Friends said 21-year-old Simba Martin was one of the men killed.

"I just want everyone to know he was a good person, he never did wrong to anybody, he always helped, as much as he could, he always helped," said Kiya Benders.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis said none of the victims lived where the shooting happened. Investigators have found a connection with the victims and the suspects, but won't talk about a motive.

"We feel that we've made real progress in this case. We're confident that we're better off now than we were twelve hours ago, and twelve hours from now we'll be much better off," said Davis.

Governor Deval Patrick met with relatives of the victims Tuesday.

"Nobody understands it. 2-years-old, I mean, nobody understands it. They don't understand," said Governor Patrick.

Mayor Menino said that community tips are helping the case.

"What we need is the community to be involved in the investigation, give us the information they know through our tip lines, which are anonymous and help us come to a conclusion on this brutal episode," said Menino.

People with information in this case are urged to call Boston Police at 1-617-343-4470 or anonymously at 1-800-494-TIPS. 

The landlord at 40 Woolson Street said that his son lives on the first floor and the two floors above it are vacant. He said that the people who were murdered there didn't live there and had no reason to be there as far as he knew.

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