Hanover man Graham Abraham has been arrested and charged in connection with calling up the Boston hospital and making a bomb threat.

A Tufts Medical staff member on Feb. 2 reported to Tufts public safety officers that a former patient, later identified as Abraham, called the hospital and made racist remarks along with complaints regarding his experience.

Then about 30 minutes later, another staff member took a call from Abraham and reported that Abraham said, “Everybody is going to die.”

Officers reportedly reviewed the audio from the recorded phone line, and heard Abraham make threats and racist slurs such as: “All (expletive) in your (expletive) vomit hospital must die. (Inaudible) ready to bomb and blow up your hospital. Got guns and knives kill all (expletive). All (expletive) must die. (Expletive) roaches and scum of the earth. All (expletive) must be slaughtered and killed.”

Abraham reportedly made numerous calls to Tufts between Jan. 15 and Feb. 2, all with similar threats.

Police departments, including Transit and Amtrak police, are familiar with Abraham and his frequent calls. Amtrak received 78 calls from Abraham in January, including disturbing statements and bomb threats. Amtrak police has issued a trespass order and banned Abraham from all Amtrak facilities.

Abraham has also been flagged by the ATF and cannot legally purchase a firearm.

“We must take all forms of threats seriously,” Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “The challenge to law enforcement is finding a balance between a person’s mental health needs and the public’s right to be safe and secure in all settings.

“This defendant has made numerous threats and disturbing statements to individuals and institutions that have helped or tried to help him in some way,” Hayden added. “We’re moving forward with criminal action here because it is clearly necessary to prevent potential public harm.”

Abraham has been charged with bomb/hijack threat with serious public alarm.

Judge Mark Summerville ordered Abraham held on $5,000 bail, and to stay away from Tufts Medical Center. Mental health services for Abraham were recommended after an evaluation by a court clinician.

Abraham is also facing charges of threat to commit a crime, and assault and disorderly conduct in BMC Central in relation to two separate incidents. He’s due back in court for all three cases on April 3.

Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz identified the woman as Sheron Trowers, who was arriving home from a trip to Jamaica when she was shot and killed early Tuesday morning.

Trowers was taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center where she was pronounced dead of her injuries.

Authorities found the man, identified as Carlos Brown, dead inside the living room at the Ash Street home, with “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” Cruz later told reporters near the property.

“It appears that Ms. Trowers was just arriving home from a trip to Jamaica, her luggage was still in the driveway. It appears she was ambushed,” Cruz said.

“There is a past domestic violence history,” he added. “I would just say to anyone who potentially is in a life-threatening relationship, they should know there is help.”

Cruz did not disclose the extent of Trowers and Brown’s relationship, whether they were married or not, if there were any children present at the time of the early morning shooting and what the “past domestic violence history” entailed.

Brockton Police received two calls reporting the shooting at 524 Ash St., near Brockton High School, Brockton Fairgrounds and Campanelli Stadium, around 1 a.m. One came from inside the home of a report of an unresponsive male, and the second from a neighbor reporting gunshots, according to the DA’s office.

Cruz highlighted SafeLink, a statewide domestic violence hotline and resource for anyone affected by domestic or dating violence that can be accessed 24/7 at 877-785-2020.

“It’s a terrible situation,” Cruz said. “Domestic violence doesn’t have a zip code. It’s everywhere unfortunately, and hopefully, if people need help, they can get help and get out of struggling relationships if they exist.”

Massachusetts State Police troopers responded to a crash involving a cement truck and a pedestrian in a wheelchair in the area of Frontage Road and Traveler Street in South Boston just after 10:10 a.m.

“The pedestrian, an adult male, suffered fatal injuries,” Mass State Police said in a statement.

Police later identified the pedestrian as a 57-year-old Boston man. His name was not immediately released, pending notification of his next-of-kin.

The 2020 Mack Granite cement truck involved in the crash is owned by Boston Sand and Gravel, and the truck was being operated by a 53-year-old Medford man, police said. The truck operator was transported by Boston EMS to a hospital with possible minor injuries.

“No charges have been sought as of this time,” Mass State Police said Tuesday afternoon.

At 10:11 AM Troopers responded to a crash involving a cement truck and a pedestrian at Frontage Road at West 4th St. in South Boston. Patrols, detectives, and our collision reconstruction, crime scene, and commercial vehicle enforcement units are on scene. Updates to follow.

— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) April 2, 2024

This fatal pedestrian incident comes after a 4-year-old girl was struck and killed by a truck in Boston, near Boston Children’s Museum last month. Gracie Gancheva, 4, died following the crash in the Fort Point intersection of Congress and Sleeper streets.

Following that deadly crash, the Boston Transportation Department reported that it’s making safety improvements in the area.

“Last night, BTD restriped all the crosswalks near Congress and Sleeper Streets,” the city’s transportation department posted on Tuesday.

“Intersection daylighting w/ flexposts creates more visibility for drivers and pedestrians,” BTD added. “More safety improvements are on the way ahead of full reconstruction project planned for next year.”

Last night, BTD restriped all the crosswalks near Congress and Sleeper Streets. Intersection daylighting w/ flexposts creates more visibility for drivers and pedestrians. More safety improvements are on the way ahead of full reconstruction project planned for next year. pic.twitter.com/odiQ03me6V

— BostonTransportation (@BostonBTD) April 2, 2024

Against the backdrop of these two recent fatal accidents, a local group that pushes for safer streets is out with its annual fatal pedestrian crash report for Massachusetts. At least 69 pedestrians lost their lives in crashes in Massachusetts last year, accounting for about 20% of the 346 total traffic deaths across the state, according to the report from WalkMassachusetts.

Boston had the most pedestrian deaths last year, recording eight fatalities. Springfield had the second most pedestrian fatalities with seven deaths recorded.

The investigation for Tuesday’s crash is active, and is being conducted by troopers from the State Police-Tunnels Barracks, State Police Detective Unit for Suffolk County, Troop H Detectives, and the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, Crime Scene Services Section, and Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section.

Fabricio Paes said that he woke shortly after 5 a.m. to the sounds of “people screaming, glass shattering” and thought at first that his two young sons were making a ruckus before school. But then the smell of smoke hit him.

Paes’ family lives on the third floor of 432 Meridian St. The address was the second home hit in the fire called in shortly before 5 a.m. By the time the fire was knocked out, the upper half of the building was a blackened shell.

Paes said that the smoke and then the sounds of his downstairs neighbor pounding on his door and screaming that everyone needed to “get out” woke him out of his funk and into action. By the time he closed his door with his family rushing down the stairs in front of him, he said, his “entire floor was filled with thick, black smoke.”

The roughly 130 firefighters defeated the brunt of the blaze at around 8:30 a.m. In all, the blaze had displaced about 30 residents, as well as some pet birds. One firefighter and six residents, including at least one child, were rushed to the nearest hospital. One resident had been pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Homicide detectives were dispatched to the scene, which a Boston Police Department spokesman said could indicate the death was deemed suspicious.

“The first firefighters that got here had heavy fire showing from two buildings and did rescue of five people over aerial ladders,” Boston Fire Department Commissioner Paul Burke said from the scene. He said the “stubborn fire” had spread to two other homes.

In all, the Fire Department estimated the total damage at $5 million. The two homes most affected by the fire, 432 and 430 Meridian Street — right at the intersection with West Eagle Street — had a combined assessed value of about $1.86 million, with about $1.34 of that as building value, according to city tax records.

At approximately 5:00 heavy fire in a large multi family building on Meridian st East Boston that traveled to the adjacent building . Heavy fire throughout the building , this is now a 6 alarm. pic.twitter.com/MyGNTVDTZu

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 2, 2024

There was visible damage to other valuable accessories in proximity to the homes. The hood of a white Toyota Corolla parked behind 430 Meridian St. was blackened and twisted from the heat of the raging fire. All of its windows had been blown out.

The fire, according to authorities and those like Paes displaced by it, first engulfed 430 Meridian St. The multi-family dwelling housed, by at least one neighbor’s estimate, about seven families — three of whom the neighbor knew.

Luckily, Juanita Brown said that everyone she was close with in the building was fine, but one of the women told her that “She’s devastated. She lost everything.”

“I just want to get down on my hands and knees and pray for them,” Brown said, adding that it is the first time she has experienced a big fire in the 16 years she has lived in the immediate area.

She said she’s already reached out to Mayor Michelle Wu and East Boston’s city councilor, Gabriela “Gigi” Coletta, to ask about how she can help, and she encouraged others to do the same.

Companies are attacking the exposure building with and interior and exterior attack and from the roof deck from the building in the rear to keep it from spreading down block pic.twitter.com/zCEYGiMRNa

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 2, 2024

At the scene of the blaze, Mayor Wu described the fire as “incredibly heartbreaking,” adding that she shares “her deepest condolences” with the family of the unidentified person who died.

“We will do whatever we can to help all of those who have been displaced,” Wu said, adding the quick response of the firefighters from all around the city saved the day.

Coletta tweeted a link to a fundraiser page run by the East Boston Social Centers that specifies that it’s “focused on raising money to provide families with help and dignity as they navigate this tragedy.”

Coletta tweeted that she’s “Grateful to the @BostonFire, @BOSTON_EMS @bostonpolice and all first responders who acted quickly to maintain this 6-alarm fire in East Boston.”

The fire remains under investigation.

Over 130 Firefighters battled the 6 alarm fire. Companies starting to make up 30 residents , a couple of birds displaced 1 Firefighter and 6 residents were transported ⁦@BOSTON_EMS⁩ . Damages estimated at 5 million dollars. pic.twitter.com/pBnnYWsnDs

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 2, 2024

Commissioner Burke and ⁦@MayorWu⁩ brief the media on the 6 alarm fire in East Boston. 5 residents were rescued over ladders but sadly there was 1 fatality. pic.twitter.com/qO2GJGLqHv

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 2, 2024

A woman was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport over the weekend after she reportedly tried to transport nearly $400,000 worth of marijuana, according to police.

The 28-year-old Michigan woman — Nalexus Palmer — has been ordered held on $3,000 bail after being arrested at Logan for attempting to move 74 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana to London, the Suffolk DA’s Office said Monday.

The marijuana shipment would have had a street value of $370,000 in the U.K., police said. Marijuana is illegal in the U.K., where it has an illicit-market street value of about $5,000 per pound. Marijuana possession is legal in Michigan and Massachusetts.

“While laws regarding simple possession in Michigan, Massachusetts and many other states may have changed, laws regarding marijuana trafficking haven’t, and anyone thinking they can move large quantities across state or international lines is taking a major risk,” Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “This defendant discovered that very quickly over the weekend.”

On Saturday at about 9 p.m., Massachusetts State Police troopers were called to Logan on a report that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had seized about 74 pounds of suspected marijuana from a passenger, later identified as Palmer.

The Michigan woman had flown from Detroit to Boston, with further plans to travel to London. Agents seized two large suitcases containing multiple vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana. Each bag also contained an Apple AirTag.

“Palmer told State Police detectives she did not know what was in the bags and that an unknown woman had dropped them off to her earlier that day,” police said in a statement. “She said a man had organized the drop off but that she did not know the man’s name.”

Palmer reportedly said she met the man four years ago in Atlanta, and that he has provided her with money through Zelle and Cash App. She claimed that the man was going to give her money for a car when she arrived in London.

Palmer was charged in East Boston BMC with trafficking marijuana between 50 and 100 pounds.

Judge Debra DelVecchio set $3,000 bail and ordered Palmer to surrender her passport and stay away from Logan Airport, except for legitimate travel.

Palmer is scheduled to return to court on May 24 for a probable cause hearing.

“First and foremost, I want to express my sincere and continued concern for Wrentham resident Michael C. Barry, whom I accidentally struck on the evening of February 16th, 2024, as I was driving to my home in my town issued vehicle through the Town of Wrentham.

As the report filed by the Wrentham Police states: I was driving on South St. toward the center and came to the intersection of Creek St. where I needed to make a left-hand turn.  As I proceeded to make the left turn onto Creek St., the vehicle lights caught the reflective vest of a person in the crosswalk. I immediately applied my brakes, but unfortunately, the car made contact with him, knocking him to the ground. I immediately exited my vehicle to render first aid and called 911.  I remained on scene with Mr. Barry until the Wrentham Police and Fire Departments responded. At that time, I answered questions, and upon my request took a breathalyzer test which read 0.0% blood alcohol content.

Upon the arrival of first responders, Mr. Barry was alert and conscious, and was transported to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment. I stayed on scene until the scene was cleared.

The investigating officer issued a Massachusetts Civil Citation for Chapter 89 Section 11, Marked Crosswalks/Yielding the right of way to pedestrians, which I have paid.

My vehicle sustained no damage, with the exception of a scuff mark on the right front corner, therefore no tow was necessary. Upon clearing the scene, I immediately notified Canton officials as to what happened.

This was an unfortunate accident. Upon further reflection and considering the amount of attention that has been focused on Canton, I should have issued a statement sooner.”

A judge ruled Monday that 52-year-old Vadim Vorobyov, who is facing charges of risk of injury to a child, first-degree larceny, first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree kidnapping, will be held on a $800,000 bond.

On March 29, Vorobyov allegedly stole a vehicle while a child was inside, prompting a frantic search for Liam David Pagan, a 3-year-old boy with autism.

An Amber Alert was issued for Pagan, who was found at a hotel in Windsor at 10:42 a.m. on Friday. Investigators found Vorobyov, nearby, according to Connecticut State Police.

State police said they tracked the stolen red Toyota Camry to Windsor, where the Enfield Police Department deployed their K-9 Dunkin, who traced a scent to the front of a Dollar Tree store.

Inside, they found and arrested Vorobyov, according to state police.

Vorobyov was brought into a courtroom at Hartford Superior Court in a tan prison-issue jumpsuit with shackles on his wrists and ankles just before 1 p.m. Monday.

State prosecutors said plans are in the works to extradite him to Massachusetts.

A bail commissioner Monday suggested he be held on a $500,000 bond, while the state countered for a higher bond of $1 million due to the serious nature of the charges.

The judge ruled that he be held on a $800,000 bond with conditions that he have no contact with the child or the child’s family.

The bail commissioner said Vorobyov has no criminal record in Connecticut but has a record in Massachusetts on charges of assault and battery in 2016. In an older case dated back to 1993, he was convicted of stealing a vehicle, the commissioner said.

A hearing will be held to screen his case for transfer to Part A court, where major crimes are heard. He is due to return to court on April 18.

The Massachusetts State Police said after his capture on Friday that the alleged abduction occurred when Vorobyov tried to make off with the car.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that at approximately 8:40 AM VOROBYOV came across the Toyota Camry as it was parked outside a residence on Exchange Street in Chicopee with the motor running and the child in the backseat,” Mass State Police said in a statement. “He entered the vehicle and drove away.”

Information from the Boston Herald was used in this report.

Early Sunday morning, police officers responded to the area of 4 Sumner Square for a report of a loud party. Responding cops saw multiple vehicles parked on the sidewalk along both sides of the street, blocking emergency vehicle access.

Officers reported that they could hear loud music, and saw a group of about 70 people at about 4:15 a.m. The cops told the group to leave the area, and the partygoers refused.

Then the officers reportedly saw 20-year-old Luca Delguado Santos, of Mattapan, “enticing the crowd by playing music from a portable boombox.”

“As officers approached the suspect, they advised him to turn the speaker off,” police said in a statement. “At this time, Santos swung the speaker and struck a police officer in the knee.”

The cops grabbed the speaker from Santos, and then a large crowd formed around the officers. That’s when a second suspect — 24-year-old Stephanie Ilma, of Mattapan — “became extremely aggressive towards officers and refused officers orders to step back.”

“Officers informed Ilma she was being placed under arrest, and she began to be combative by punching multiple officers,” police said. “A violent struggle ensued, and officers were safely able to place Ilma into handcuffs.”

During the struggle, Santos reportedly jumped on top of the officers and tried to intervene in Ilma’s arrest. With the help of responding officers, Santos was also detained.

Then 20-year-old Miguel Martinez, of Boston, reportedly began to entice the crowd that was formed around the arresting officers. Cops told the suspect to leave the area, which he refused, and Martinez was subsequently placed under arrest.

After a search related to her arrest, officers recovered a taser from Ilma’s purse.

Santos was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest, interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace.

Ilma was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm (taser), assault and battery with a dangerous weapon to wit shod foot, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace.

Martinez was charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and interfering with a police officer.

All three suspects were expected to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court.

More than 20 migrant families have called Harborside Suites in South Yarmouth their home since last September, but the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals has declared the motel has violated a local bylaw that limits temporary stays to less than 30 days.

“We would move today if we could,” motel Attorney Mark Boudreau said during a meeting last week. “The migrants that are there, they are ready to move. A lot of them have work visas… They would like to get going so they can obtain work where they’re going to be.”

Building Commissioner Mark Grylls issued a violation notice to the motel – currently housing 27 families – last October, but he told the ZBA he had to have their blessing before he could start imposing fines.

Harborside Suites, on Route 28 in the popular summer vacation beach town, sought a reversal of the violation, pointing to state officials that had said that “emergency needs of migrant families supersede the occupancy requirements of local zoning.”

But ZBA Vice Chairman Sean Igoe countered that he’s not confident Gov. Maura Healey’s migrant state-of-emergency carries more weight than local ordinances.

In her declaration last August, Healey wrote: “To the cities and towns across the state, many of which have a rich history tied to waves of immigrants settling within their borders, I am encouraging their communities to keep welcoming those families who wish to resettle in all corners of Massachusetts.”

Igoe took exception to the governor’s wording before the ZBA voted to uphold Grylls’ violation notice. “She’s just urging the cities and towns, she’s not ordering us to do it,” he said.

The state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment on Saturday.

In January, the ZBA approved Harborside Suites maintaining the migrants as Boudreau had told members that the motel heard from the state that the families would be moved to a “larger facility in the Foxboro area” that would “provide better opportunities for food and room.”

Motels that housed migrants in Bourne and Wareham, which Boudreau represents, have been “completely evacuated,” the attorney said. The future shelter for the Yarmouth migrant families, he added, is “within a 20-mile radius of Foxboro.”

“Unfortunately, the property did not pass inspection and had some code violations so they have not moved,” Boudreau said last Thursday. “Everyone is aware in the motel that they will be moving as soon as the property is ready.”

The exact date when the families will be moving out is unclear, but in previous violations of the Yarmouth motel-stay ordinance, the ZBA has given 45 to 90 days depending on the situation, Grylls said.

“I don’t believe we’ve had circumstances like this,” he said.

Harborside Suites is the latest motel or hotel to be thrust into the spotlight of the Massachusetts migrant crisis.

A 26-year-old Haitian national, living at a Rockland motel housing migrants, was charged with aggravated rape of a 15-year-old girl who police described in a report as “disabled,” on March 14. A Hingham judge found Cory Alvarez dangerous a week later and ordered him held without bail.

Taunton officials in February sued the owners of the Clarion Hotel housing migrant families in that city for providing living quarters to nearly 450 people, more than 350-person capacity. The suit seeks over $100,000 in overdue civil fines.

House Speaker Ron Mariano has suggested that broad budget cuts could be on the table when lawmakers sit down next year to draft the fiscal year 2026 budget, fueled by the historically high cost of running the state-run shelters.

With an expected $932 million tab this fiscal year and $915 million in the next to maintain shelters, associated services, and keep municipal reimbursements on track, Mariano projected that a range of other programs could be on the chopping block and put the blame on the feds and their lack of action in solving the migrant crisis.

In his fight with the Yarmouth ZBA, Boudreau highlighted the state’s “great expense” while arguing that the emergency declaration and right-to-shelter law –  homeless families and pregnant women must be provided housing in the Bay State – took precedence over local ordinance.

“To the extent that there is a question of safety and a question of the adequacy of the rooms,” Boudreau said, “the Commonwealth has at great expense provided food, shelter, education, medicine and medical care. They’ve arrived legally, and my client is simply trying to cooperate with the town and the state in getting them moved.”

Since migrant families arrived at Harborside Suites last fall, Yarmouth firefighters responded to a flooding at the motel in January, and a 6-month-old baby was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital the day after they took up residence, according to the hyperlocal Hyannis News. The baby had  “phlegm coming from her mouth, with blood-tinged sputum, according to radio transmissions,” the hyperlocal Hyannis News reported.

Town leaders assured residents last December that there were no active cases of tuberculosis at the motel after a brief scare, the Cape Cod Times reported.

Yarmouth resident Cheryl Ball told the Herald Saturday she is “very pleased” with the ZBA’s decision and hopes it creates a precedent across the state.

“It’s draining our resources,” Ball said of the impact the migrant families have had on the town. “They’re a burden on our education system because we have to pay extra tax dollars to support them in our schools. We have emergency services that we are providing to the hotel that comes out of our tax money.”

The agency informed the Herald this past week that the heavily redacted 15 installments of Whitey’s dirty dealings already dropped in their public records “Vault” will be the last we see. Forever!

That can’t be tolerated. The Herald has 90 days to file an “administrative appeal,” and we fully intend to do so.

As we reported, the files posted in dribs and drabs are mostly run-of-the-mill mobster fare, with talk of loan sharking, horse race fixing, and ruthless gang rule. What about the rest? The agency’s contract with this devil must be made public. If the past is truly prologue, members of law enforcement must learn from the agency’s mistakes in dealing with depraved career killers.

Today’s Department of Justice has a spotty record regarding transparency. On one hand, it exceeded expectations when it exposed Rachael Rollins’s politicization of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.

Former U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling bravely launched a campaign against the ruthless MS-13 gang in New England, saving lives. But he didn’t prosecute former Gov. Charlie Baker’s son for allegedly groping a woman on a Boston-bound flight.

Now U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has a rare opportunity to overturn the FBI’s penchant for incestuous secrecy, overrule the G-men, and order the release of every memo on Bulger’s sordid life.

This is not a journalistic paper chase using the Freedom of Information Act for an academic exercise in the First Amendment. This won’t be made into a Hollywood flick with A-list actors pretending to be from Boston. This is all about the victims.

When the news broke this week that the FBI was dumping Bulger’s file in the trash, one of those loved ones left to grow old alone without her husband called the Herald to lament the end of this painful road.

“This makes me feel that anything new that might still come out won’t be shared with the victims,” said Mary Callahan, now in her 80s. “Maybe this means they don’t want to share that. It could be money we are owed. There’s 33 of us, when I last counted. I’m seeing this as the FBI telling all of us to ‘Go Away!'”

Mary’s accountant husband, John Callahan, was executed in South Florida on Bulger’s orders in 1982 — and the FBI played a central part.

John Callahan, the former president of World Jai Alai, was shot dead by John Martorano, one of Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was also a friend of his. Bulger wanted Callahan dead because the Boston businessman could implicate them in a 1981 slaying of another World Jai Alai executive.

Disgraced ex-FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 for wearing his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with Bulger in Boston to warn him of what John Callahan knew. Zip is now home in Massachusetts on a “compassionate release” from his Florida prison cell as he battles cancer.

The corrupt rabbit hole goes deeper.

We filed a public records request for Bulger’s FBI file soon after he was murdered in a West Virginia prison in 2018. The first installment was posted on July 8, 2021. The last one dropped on Oct. 3, 2022.

If that’s all we see, shame on the FBI.

He bought a condo on Sleeper Street in 1985, drives by the area five or six times a day, and said he constantly sees young kids and families running down the sidewalk to a crossing where a 4-year-old girl was killed after being hit by a vehicle last weekend.

“They’ve been at the museum. They’re all pumped up. They start running down the sidewalk,” he told the Herald Saturday morning. “I see parent after parent, hoping somebody who can move faster with a big arm, kind of grabbing them and herding them in. So it’s totally understandable how the little girl ended up in the street.”

Joseph was one of more than a dozen residents who joined city officials at a gathering to remember Gracie Gancheva, a 4-year-old from Denver, Colorado, who was hit by a truck shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday and was later declared dead at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Locals who showed up Saturday said the intersection at Sleeper and Congress streets can be dangerous for pedestrians and drivers who are not paying attention, with one resident describing driving on Congress Street as the “wild, wild west.”

A city official said Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration is in the process of putting in place temporary safety upgrades, including removing a parking spot on the southeast corner of the intersection to increase the visibility of a crosswalk.

Boston Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge said “multiple city staff engineers, planners” were looking at the area to see what improvements could be made quickly like adding additional markings and barriers and restriping all of the pavement markings and crosswalks in the neighborhood.

“We’re looking at additional changes that we can make at this intersection and in the surrounding area to ensure that the basic safety infrastructure that we rely on, that the signs are there, that we have the warnings for drivers, that pedestrians can see where they’re going, and they can see cars that may be turning,” he said.

The city has long been planning upgrades to Congress Street, a major arterial road that connects South Boston to downtown, like “significantly” wider concrete sidewalks on both sides of the street, new crosswalks, bike lanes, and places for cars to briefly pull over.

The project includes reconstructing Sleeper Street between Congress Street and Seaport Boulevard with accessible sidewalks and a raised crosswalk for Martin’s Park, according to the city’s website.

Raised crosswalks for Sleeper and Farnsworth Streets along Congress Street will “slow turning vehicles and make pedestrians more visible,” according to a presentation from the city.

Franklin-Hodge said the project is in the final stages of planning and design.

“We expect to have it bid out for construction later this year and into construction by early next year. We’re looking at whatever we can do to accelerate that timeline but … we anticipate it will be fully funded in the budget,” Hodges said.

Tom Ready of the Fort Point Neighborhood Association said that after public meetings on the project over the past few years, most people “felt comfortable” with the redesign because it would slow cars down and “provide a safe environment for pedestrians and support bikes in the neighborhood.”

But as the neighborhood continued to work with the city on “some of the deficiencies” in the neighborhood, the scope of the project increased, Ready said.

“That’s what’s, frankly … slowed things down and I guess maybe we were trying to be too perfect and trying to get too much done. But in the end, what we’re after is for exactly what they said they want to do,” he said. “We recognize that construction time frames can be difficult, but that shouldn’t prevent (the city) from doing temporary things out here immediately.”

Ready said the neighborhood association asked the city to assign a police detail to patrol the area and the intersection ahead of April School Vacation Week to protect kids who come and go from the Boston Children’s Museum and Martin’s Park.

The one block area that includes the museum and the park saw over 1 million visitors before the pandemic in 2019, said Charlayne Murrell-Smith, the vice president of external relations and corporate development for Boston Children’s Museum, who is also a trustee for the park.

Murrell-Smith said those numbers are quickly returning.

“We do believe that the museum and the park need to be thought of differently and considered in the same context as a school zone and with some particular additional kinds of warnings and notifications that exist around schools,” she said. “We know that there are policy changes that need to take place for that to happen.”

Franklin-Hodge said implementing a school zone around the museum and park is technically against state law but the city is looking at creating a reduced speed zone around the area.

“There’s a couple of different, other types of speed controlled zones that are allowed in different circumstances. And so we’re looking at all those options to see what we could do potentially around here,” he said. “We do have some legal authority to do what’s called a safety zone and we’re trying to figure out if that can be applied here.”

Councilor Ed Flynn said Gancheva’s death was a “horrific accident.”

“Let’s recommit and work together to ensure that this type of horrific accident never happens again,” he said.

Hanson resident John D. Murphy, 50, was arrested Thursday and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Boston the next morning to nine counts of possessing animals for use in an animal fighting venture. Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy released Murphy on $5,000 unsecured bond ahead of a formal detention hearing scheduled to take place at the federal court in Worcester on April 3 at noon.

The U.S. Marshals Service on June 7, 2023, seized eight “pit bull-type” dogs from Murphy’s Hanson home, according to a civil forfeiture document filed in the case. One of the dogs, which the feds described as a “red, underweight male” and possibly suffering from cancer, died during the seizure. Of the remaining dogs, five of them were males and two were female.

Ahead of the seizure, law enforcement conducted aerial surveillance of Murphy’s residence in late March and early April of 2023 where they allegedly observed a “stockaded enclosure as well as what agents believed to be outdoor housing structures for fighting dogs” and during both days of surveillance “observed one or more dogs within or immediately outside of the enclosure.”

“In the United States, dogfighting ventures usually involve pit bull-type dogs, which dogfighters prefer for their compact muscular build, short coat, and the aggression that some display toward other dogs,” the feds wrote in the document, adding that owners tend to “isolate dogs” both to prevent fighting outside the pit and to “discourage normal socialization.”

Valuable and winning dogs, the feds say, are kept “for long periods of time so that (owners) can continue to profit off those dogs in future dogfights or from selling offspring or breeding rights. The more fights a dog wins, the higher the dog’s value.”

The feds also seized five dogs the same day from a residence in Townsend. The owner of that residence is identified in court documents as Steven Morrissey, but a query of federal court dockets does not show him to be charged yet with any crime, though the allegations in the document are similar to those against Murphy.

All of the dogs are being cared for by a Marshals Service contractor, according to the forfeiture doc.

The feds say that owners keep so many dogs because fights are arranged based on animal sex and weight within a pound of each other, so keeping different dogs increases the chances the owner will have a dog that meets the needs of a proposed fight. Dogs will often die or become terribly injured during fights, and owners are known to kill less aggressive dogs to make room on their roster.

These fights, the feds say, were arranged in private Facebook groups, where Murphy allegedly participated under the aliases “John Mac Murchaidha” and “Séamus Sugar.” Such groups, like “Scratch Dog Journal,” are also allegedly used to share results of fights, buy and sell fighting dogs and share tips on training and conditioning of the dogs.

The feds say Murphy’s home was chockablock with dogfighting instruments and materials, according to the indictment delivered by the grand jury on March 28.

Those materials allegedly include intravenous infusion equipment and other veterinary materials like syringes, antibiotics, injectable steroids and corticosteroids, forceps, and a “skin stapler”; as well as training materials including a treadmill, slat mill, carpet mill and a flirt pole, which is a pole with a lure at the end that dogs can chase and is used in this subculture to “increase jaw strength and increase aggression.”

He is also alleged to have kept books and DVDs on dog training and fighting; a digital scale; “break sticks,” which the feds say are used to separate fighting dogs; and “a breeding stand used to immobilize female dogs during breeding.”

“Because the Court concludes that no egregious misconduct occurred that is reasonably or substantially likely to materially prejudice or interfere with the defendant’s right to a fair trial, the Court will deny the motion,” Judge Beverly J. Cannone wrote in her ruling.

Read’s defense attorneys declined to comment to the Herald on the ruling.

Cannone’s decision follows swiftly after she denied on Tuesday the defense’s request that the case be dismissed. The trial is set to start on April 16.

Prosecutors say that Read struck Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, with her Lexus SUV outside a Canton home in the very early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022, and left him there to die in the cold. She was indicted on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a personal injury or death, to which she has pleaded not guilty.

The defense counters with a third-party culprit theory that, as Cannone summarizes, “one or more persons attending a social gathering at (that) home killed O’Keefe and that they, along with others, including the Canton and State Police, engaged in a coverup of the crime.” After O’Keefe was allegedly beaten and murdered inside the home, they say, his body was planted outside.

Central in the defense theory is Brian Albert, a Boston Police Department sergeant and then-homeowner of 34 Fairview Road in Canton where O’Kee’s body was found on the front lawn. The defense has implicated him and others, including his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe, of participating in a conspiracy surrounding O’Keefe’s death. Both Albert and McCabe, as well as other outside parties, have obtained lawyers to represent them in court.

They have also fingered Norfolk DA Morrissey as a participant in that conspiracy through at least two ways: first, making an unprecedented public statement on Aug. 25, 2023, decrying the defense’s theory and vouching for the people implicated in it and, second, that he had failed to disclose details of a federal inquiry into his office’s handling of the murder investigation.

“Jennifer McCabe, Matthew McCabe, Brian Albert. These people were not part of a conspiracy and certainly did not commit murder or any crime that night. They have been forthcoming with authorities, provided statements, and have not engaged in any cover up. They are not suspects in any crime — they are merely witnesses in the case,” Morrissey said in his public statement which was released as both a press release transcript as well as a video.

He also defended the principal Massachusetts State Police investigator in the case, Trooper Michael Proctor, who the defense has said had an improper relationship with the Alberts and have accused of investigatory misconduct.

“Trooper Proctor was not there and did not plant evidence at 34 Fairview Road,” Morrissey said. “In addition to having no opportunity to plant evidence as has been suggested, Trooper Proctor would have no motive to do so: Trooper Proctor had no close personal relationship with any of the parties involved in the investigation, had no conflict, and had no reason to step out of the investigation.”

The MSP has since revealed that Proctor is the subject of an internal review, but said that he will continue on the job as that investigation is conducted. The MSP would not provide details on the scope or focus of the investigation.

Judge Cannone in her ruling admits that some parts of Morrissey’s statement runs afoul of the rules of professional conduct, as the defense had argued, “particularly his comments about witnesses that relate to their credibility are the type of extrajudicial statements.” She does not find, however, that the statements rise to the level to which the indictments against Read should be dismissed.

“Though certain comments by DA Morrissey crossed the line of permissible extrajudicial statements by a prosecutor, they are not egregious misconduct that is reasonably or substantially likely to materially prejudice or interfere with a fair trial,” she wrote.

The defense further accused Morrissey of violating the rules of professional conduct by not disclosing that the U.S. Attorney’s office for Massachusetts was conducting an investigation of its own into the Karen Read investigation until six months after Morrissey himself had learned of it. It’s a charge to which Cannone wrote she “does not agree.”

She found that while the Norfolk DA’s office was in communication with the U.S. Attorney’s office over the subpoenas of their witnesses for that time period, the DA’s office “had little to no information about the investigation and was unaware of what, if any, evidence” the U.S. Attorney’s office had.

Police tracked down Dejan Belnavis, 27, in San Diego on March 11 after a nearly weeklong manhunt for the suspected gunman. He was brought back to Massachusetts where on Friday morning he appeared in Worcester District Court to be charged with two counts of murder.

At that hearing, a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. The judge ordered Belnavis held without bail.

Another man, Karel Mangual, 28, of Sterling Street in Worcester, was arraigned earlier this month on initial charges of armed assault with intent to murder and carrying a firearm without a license, to which he pleaded not guilty. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that he was ordered held without bail and is scheduled to appear back in court for a probable cause hearing on April 12.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early announced following that arraignment that the charges would be increased to murder, as would Belnavis’ charges.

The two men are accused of murdering mother Chastity Nunez, 27, and her daughter Zella Nunez, 11, while they were parked in a car in the area of Lisbon Street and Englewood Avenue, according to previous Herald coverage.

Police say they connected Belnavis and Mangual to the shooting through security camera footage, emergency pings of Belnavis’ cell phone, and records from the internal system of the white Acura that authorities say Belnavis was driving at the time of the murders.

Prosecutors say that after Worcester Police received the shots fired call, investigators obtained security camera footage from the scene that shows “the victims’ vehicle parked on the side of the road and two men walk up to the vehicle and start shooting at the vehicle.”

The men then flee the scene toward the white Acura, for which police say an on-scene witness provided the Massachusetts license plate number. The registered owner of that vehicle told police that he had loaned the car to Belnavis starting around a year ago.

Police further linked Belnavis to the scene, according to the “Statement of Facts” document that support the murder charges, because cell phone tower records put him near there at the time of the shooting.

Records provided by AT&T of the Acura’s internal system put the car in Hartford, Conn., after the shooting, police say. Authorities say that security camera footage from there shows two men exiting the suspect vehicle and that Mangual’s face is clearly visible and both men’s shoes match those from the crime scene footage.

This is a developing story.

MIAMI — A nondisclosure agreement crafted on behalf of Sean “Diddy” Combs is the newest clue illuminating a sordid world of alleged sex trafficking, abuse and illegal drug use surrounding the music mogul. It raised alarm bells for a lawyer who analyzed the document for the Miami Herald.

NDAs are standard for artists and celebrities with major popularity and influence, attorney Gavin Tudor Elliot said. Normally, they’re viewed as tools to protect an artist’s private life, but the scope and breadth of Diddy’s NDA, Elliot added, is far beyond the norm.

“This agreement may be the broadest non-disclosure agreement that I have ever seen,” said Elliot, who has done extensive corporate contract work, including NDAs, for more than 20 years. “The lack of clear definition as to who can and cannot be spoken about is terrifying.”

For Elliot, the agreement may have been drafted to create a “culture of silence” rather than to offer a simple barrier between Diddy and the public.

Why did Diddy hand out NDAs?

In a lawsuit filed last month, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones accused Diddy of being the leader of a criminal enterprise that could qualify as a “widespread and dangerous criminal sex trafficking organization.” A copy of the NDA was included in an updated complaint filed Wednesday.

The NDA was presented to people who were at a Hollywood recording studio when a shooting occurred on Sept. 12, 2022, Jones alleged. Some signed it; he did not.

In the 98-page filing, Jones states the friend of Diddy’s son Justin Combs was shot during a heated conversation with Diddy and Justin.

According to Jones, there was a “massive coverup” after the shooting. Diddy’s crew, he alleges, doctored the narrative that the man was shot outside the studio during a robbery. Police have yet to release any reports related to the shooting.

Jones, however, states that Diddy and his son took the unnamed man into a nearby restroom shortly before gunshots rang out. When the door finally open, the man was on the floor in the fetal position, bleeding from his torso.

Jones rushed to the aid of Justin’s friend and took him to an ambulance, according to the lawsuit. Since the shooting, he has mysteriously vanished.

The producer’s lawsuit isn’t the only time similar allegations have emerged in recent months. Diddy was accused of sexual assault in several other lawsuits filed by women.

The first involved R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, who alleged that Diddy abused her for years and forced her to have sex with male sex workers. He settled with her the day after it was filed in November, but Cassie’s legal action proved to be a catalyst for other potential victims to speak out — in turn creating a domino effect for the four lawsuits that followed.

It’s unclear who has seen or been told to sign the NDA — part of the agreement is that signers can’t disclose it.

Agreement weaponized for intimidation?

Elliot sees the agreement more as a dangerously broad legal document rather than a true NDA that would withstand legal challenges.

The document attempts to be a nondisclosure, nondisparagement, intellectual property rights and indemnification agreement all at once for Diddy and anyone affiliated with him, in any shape or form.

There are no specifics on what would make someone an associate of Diddy, nor does it have any constraints on what can and cannot be said about them, Elliot said.

The agreement strives to make everything involving or around him confidential, he said, but that’s not how the law works. Traditionally, most NDA’s allow signers to disclose any information that is part of the public domain or that is given to them by a third party.

“It is anybody’s guess who those people are because anyone affiliated with the artist in his professional or personal life counts,” he said. “I would never let a client sign this.”

The ambiguity created by the agreement’s terms is intentional, Elliot said. Any normal person with little legal knowledge would fear of the prospect of being sued by referring to someone or something that they did not know even involved Diddy.

“It’s not only designed and intended to create that culture of silence and intimidation, but any reasonable person reading this would think they would just need to shut up,” he said.

However, the NDA is not bulletproof, and Elliot added it would be unenforceable. A signor would be allowed to talk about Diddy and his associates if they were mandated to by a court, such as a subpoena or police investigation, and to seek legal counsel.

While those loopholes exist, Elliot thinks a normal person wouldn’t know. The fear alone would stop them from reporting a possible crime involving Diddy or his associates if they can’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The most likely response from people would be ‘I didn’t see anything’ or ‘I don’t know,’ if they would say anything at all,” Elliot said of signers who may have seen a crime committed.

When are NDAs needed?

A celebrity — or someone of high net worth — may request an NDA for people who work for them, including assistants and housemaids, to protect information they may not want publicly disclosed, said South Florida attorney Brad Cohen, who has represented celebrities like Drake, Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.

“When you’re dealing with people of high-net worth … the motivation to make things up, leak information, get paid for information increases,” Cohen said.

There’s a multitude of business reasons for having an NDA signed, Cohen said. If something happens at a location in which a prominent individual is affiliated, it could affect their business dealings. For musicians, they may want to protect their music from being prematurely released to the public.

“It’s more of a protection for the high net worth or popular person from, usually, nefarious individuals …” Cohen said.

Elliot believes it is more likely that the NDA offered to Jones and others was an emergency agreement, and Diddy’s team has a better-worded and less ambiguous document for other matters.

“This is speculation, but this [NDA] seems like the sort of one you have in your back pocket when something really bad goes down and you want to cover it up,” he said.

©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

MIAMI — Days after federal agents raided Sean “Diddy” Combs’ multimillion-dollar compounds on both sides of the country, a music producer who sued the hip-hop megastar turned entrepreneur has come forward with another complaint that sheds light on more than a dozen pages of new accusations.

In a lawsuit filed last month, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones accused the Bad Boys Records founder of being the leader of a criminal enterprise that could qualify as a “widespread and dangerous criminal sex trafficking organization.” For about a year, Jones worked with Diddy to produce several songs on his R&B album “The Love Album: Off the Grid.”

Jones on Monday amended the complaint, submitted in New York federal court, to name the actor Cuba Gooding Jr. as a co-defendant. Also listed as defendants are Diddy’s son Justin Combs, record label executives and members of the music mogul’s staff.

Jones’ complaint was again revised Wednesday, providing more details — and evidence — related to the alleged sex-fueled work environment that he was exposed to while working for Diddy on the Grammy-nominated “Love” album in 2023.

Mounting evidence levied against Diddy?

Here are some of the new allegations detailed in the amended civil complaint:

• Diddy paid rap sensation Yung Miami, Instagram model Jade Ramey and actress Daphne Joy a monthly fee to work as his sex workers.
• While crafting “The Love Album,” Diddy wanted to create a “love-making atmosphere.” In that quest, he forced employees, including Jones, to take shots of alcohol and engage in sex acts with sex workers.
• Diddy personally distributed guns from his Los Angeles and Miami Beach homes to local gang members.
• Brendon Paul, described as Diddy’s mule, transported guns to and from night clubs, strip clubs and other venues in the Miami area.
• Diddy’s employees smuggled drugs on commercial airlines through carry-on luggage.
• Chief of staff Kristina Khorram ordered drugs and forced Diddy’s entourage to carry them in black Prada pouches. She also solicited sex workers, negotiated their price and paid for them.
• While in Miami, neither Khorram nor Diddy allowed Jones to visit family for birthdays or holidays. They allegedly told him that if he left, he wouldn’t be allowed to return.
• At a July 2023 listening party in California, there were at least five girls under the age of 17. Jones reported feeling uncomfortable, yet Diddy took his car keys so that he couldn’t leave.
• In a group chat including Jones, Diddy would ask his confidants about their opinions of Jones — and if they thought the producer would remain loyal to him.
• Diddy hired a private investigator to dig up “dirt” on Jones, offering people money to speak poorly about the producer. Friends of the producer would then receive harassing messages from the private investigator.
• Jones alleges that there was a “massive coverup” related to the 2022 shooting of Justin Combs’ friend inside a Hollywood recording studio. Diddy’s crew, he says, doctored the narrative that the man was shot outside the studio during a robbery.
• Those who were present at the studio that day were also asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Jones refused to do so.
• Jones also maintains that Diddy was present inside the studio — and included a photo in the lawsuit of a bloody mess in a bathroom. The victim has since mysteriously vanished.

©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

State Police say they located Liam David Pagan at a hotel in Windsor, Conn. “He is safe,” the MSP tweeted at 10:42 a.m. Friday.

At 10:48 a.m., the agency confirmed that they had found the suspected car thief and abductor, a 52-year-old Springfield man, at Anytime Fitness in Windsor, Conn.

The suspect has been identified as Vadim Vorobyov, 52, of Springfield. He will be charged with kidnapping, child endangerment, and fugitive from justice in Connecticut. He’s also expected to be charged with kidnapping, child endangerment, and motor vehicle larceny in Massachusetts.

“Investigation indicates he dropped the child off at the Rodeway Inn and then drove to the shopping plaza where he left the car. Hotel employees contacted police,” the MSP wrote.

The child was found safe and apparently unharmed. The boy was transported to a Massachusetts hospital for a precautionary examination.

The MSP had issued the AMBER Alert reporting the abduction just before 10:30 a.m.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that at approximately 8:40 AM VOROBYOV came across the Toyota Camry as it was parked outside a residence on Exchange Street in Chicopee with the motor running and the child in the backseat,” Mass State Police wrote. “He entered the vehicle and drove away.”

The Kids and Car Safety national nonprofit quickly put out a public service announcement stating 27 children were left alone in a vehicle that was then stolen this year. “We see an increase in these cases every year as the temperatures get cooler,” they added.

“It is incredibly traumatizing for everyone involved and a significant misuse of law enforcement
resources. Incidents like this are very easily avoidable by never leaving a child alone in a
vehicle,” the nonprofit added.

Tips for parents:

1. Never leave a child of any age or pet alone in a vehicle, not even for a minute.
2. Use drive-thrus or curbside pickup so you don’t have to leave your vehicle.
3. If a business doesn’t offer curbside delivery, call upon arrival and ask them to bring your order to your car. Most people are more than happy to accommodate you when you tell them you have small children. It takes a village!
4. Keep car doors locked and keys on your person when pumping gas with children inside the vehicle.

At least 69 pedestrians lost their lives in crashes in Massachusetts last year, accounting for about 20% of the 346 total traffic deaths across the state, according to the report from WalkMassachusetts.

Boston had the most pedestrian deaths last year, recording eight fatalities. Springfield had the second most pedestrian fatalities with seven deaths recorded.

Of the state’s 351 cities and towns, 40 had at least one pedestrian fatality last year.

“We are heartbroken each year learning the stories of people walking who lose their lives in these senseless, and largely preventable, crashes,” said Brendan Kearney, co-executive director of WalkMassachusetts.

“One factor emerges again and again in these crashes: vehicle speed,” Kearney added. “Our roads are designed for people to drive too fast. We witness residents across the Commonwealth wanting to advocate for changes in the streets in their own community – and we stand ready to help.”

This annual report comes in the wake of the fatal pedestrian crash near Boston Children’s Museum last weekend. Gracie Gancheva, 4, died following the crash in the Fort Point intersection of Congress and Sleeper streets on Sunday.

The child was with family at the time. The driver of the Ford F-150 pickup truck that struck her remained on scene, and no charges, citations or arrests had been made. The Gancheva family lives in Denver, Colorado, according to published reports.

Last year, 5-year-old girl Sidney Mae Olson was struck and killed by a tractor trailer truck in an Andover crosswalk. Also, 4-year-old boy Ivan Pierre died following a hit-and-run crash in Hyde Park.

According to the annual report, older adults were hit and killed at a higher rate than those in other age groups for the third year in a row: 31.9% of fatal crash victims were over the age of 65, while this segment represents only 18% of the state’s total population.

Just on Thursday, Dedham Police responded to a Whole Foods parking lot for a 71-year-old pedestrian who had been struck by a vehicle. The Dorchester woman reportedly suffered serious injuries.

“People of all ages deserve to be safe as we move within and between our communities,” said Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative Executive Director James Fuccione.

“For older adults to be active, engaged and included in community life means having infrastructure that prioritizes safety and connection to things we all find meaningful,” the executive director added. “This data is proof that there is more to be done as we collectively need to advance and quicken the progress being made.”

While total pedestrian deaths dipped from the previous year’s all-time high of 101 deaths, last year’s total of 69 deaths sits at the average of pedestrian deaths over the past 22 years.

About 70% of the fatal pedestrian crashes last year occurred in the dark, before sunrise or after sunset. Also, at least seven of the fatal crashes were recorded as hit and runs, where the driver left the scene of the crash.

More than 70% of the vehicles people were driving in these fatal crashes were passenger cars, while 21.5% were “light trucks.” All vans, minivans, pickups, and SUVs are combined into the “light truck” category.

Breaking it down to where the crashes happened, more than three quarters (76.8%) of the fatalities took place on streets controlled by cities and towns. Less than 20% (18.8%) were on MassDOT roads. The remaining 4.3% were Massport, UMass, and private property.

“In previous years of this report, we’ve urged our state and local leaders to take steps to design our streets to be safer for Massachusetts residents,” the group wrote in the report. “This year, we’re urging everyone to do their part to make their community a safer place: lead a walk audit in a place you’re concerned about in your neighborhood.”

“As in each year we’ve released this report, we believe that on the state and local level, there is a need for more action to slow drivers down so people trying to cross the street can do so safely,” the group wrote, later adding, “Oversized vehicles are making U.S. streets deadlier for pedestrians and bike riders. Vehicle design and visibility from the driver’s seat are significant factors in the rise of traffic crashes and fatalities.”

Firefighter Michael Kennedy and Lt. Ed Walsh died in the wind-swept fire on March 26, 2014. Sen. Nick Collins, the chief sponsor of the bill (S 2712) that the Senate passed, said that “unpermitted, unlicensed welding was being done by torch on a windy day” and that “a wooden shed connected to the brownstone caught fire when the sparks flew into it due to the shoddy work, setting the building on fire.”

In the aftermath of the fatal Back Bay fire, Collins said the state “learned of the gaping holes in our laws and regulations to prevent such shoddy work and ensure that welding and hot works professionals get the training, ongoing training, and compliance with permitting and licensing regulations and standards.”

He said the commission that was formed to study hot work came up with a comprehensive regulatory framework to establish and maintain standards of training, oversight and accountability, coupled with enforcement.

Collins’ bill requires the Department of Fire Services to develop and operate a publicly accessible database to document written notices of code violations and fines from violations or noncompliance with state fire code. It seeks to ensure individuals maintain hot work training certification, and requires the Department of Fire Services to coordinate with the Department of Occupational Licensure and local code enforcement officers to compile the data on code violations.

“This bill represents another step in the process of reform. We will continue to debate other elements of the Walsh Kennedy Commission report, particularly adding a criminal negligence statute like the states of New York, California, among others, so that though those whose violations result in death can be charged,” Collins said. “That is for another day.”

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester said the Back Bay fire 10 years ago showed that “something that happens every day in the commonwealth can turn fatal when it’s not conducted properly.” And he agreed with Collins that there will be more work for the Legislature to do on the topic.

“I don’t believe it’s the last step, but it’s an important step. To say that we are going to better understand that activity, sanction its violations, understand trends when improperly-conducted work is occurring, and having that information, we’ll be empowered to act even further to ensure that it’s properly conducted,” Tarr said. “Today, we recognize the sacrifice of those two brave individuals who were lost protecting our safety. And we do one of the most important things that we could do, to recognize that sacrifice, is take action so that never again will a member of the fire service have to be subjected to that danger, and that fate.”

Sens. Paul Feeney of Foxborough and John Keenan of Quincy each used brief floor speeches to both praise the Senate for passing Collins’ bill Thursday and also to call for more attention to issues affecting first responders.

“I am so grateful that we are doing this today, it’s time to turn that tragedy into something positive. And I know that it’s ridiculous sometimes to even have to say, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart and I know everybody here shares it, that if we can take that tragedy and at least see something, something, move forward to protect the lives of firefighters who protect us on a daily basis across the commonwealth of Massachusetts, then I think we’re doing our job and we’re being responsive,” Feeney said. “I hope to see us do more of these types of bills … here in this chamber. Not only as a message to public safety professionals that we’re grateful for their service, but that we care about keeping them alive, too.”

Like Feeney, Keenan alluded to other issues affecting firefighters and first responders, like exposure to toxic chemicals through their turnout gear and firefighting foam, and disproportionately higher rates of certain cancers among firefighters.

“So while grateful and thankful that we can do this, and we thank everybody who’s been involved, we have a lot more to do. And you know what? It’s not all that complicated. It’s not all that difficult. Why can’t we have insurance companies provide insurance coverage so that firefighters can get lung cancer screenings? … It’s just something that we should do,” Keenan said. He added, “It shouldn’t take a tragedy. It shouldn’t take another death. Those are the things that we should be doing. And I hope today marks the passage of this bill, quick movement to the governor’s desk, and then a commitment on all those other important matters that impact firefighters’ lives and their families.”

The bill now goes over to the House.

Scott Jameson, 47, of Sutton and also Ireland, was arrested in October 2022 on a single count of child pornography after customs agents uncovered some 100 images of child pornography on his laptop, as well as a roughly 12-second video was allegedly discovered on an external hard drive that captured the genitals of a young boy.

His charges were increased the following month when he was indicted on charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and transportation of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to both charges in federal court in Boston last November.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns sentenced Jameson to 78 months — or six ½ years — in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. Jameson will also have to pay $20,000 in special assessments.

“Scott Jameson thought that by traveling overseas to Cambodia in order to sexually exploit children, he could get away with it. He was wrong,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy. “Sexual exploitation of children is unconscionable, regardless of where the victims live. Our office works with international authorities regularly to make sure that individuals like Mr. Jameson are held accountable for their criminal conduct.”

Authorities were first made aware of Jameson’s overseas wrongdoing when members of the Cambodian organization Action Pour Les Enfants, or APLE, contacted FBI agents stationed in their country in February 2022 and told them that Jameson “was engaged in inappropriate behavior and potential sexual exploitation of minors in Kratie, Cambodia,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

That behavior included giving gifts and money to the families of small children and then sleeping with the children. And it wasn’t just once, as APLE reported to the FBI that Jameson had traveled from Boston to Cambodia again in August 2022. It was upon his return the next month that customs agents encountered him at Logan International Airport in Boston and found the illicit materials.

Jameson performed across New England for 20 years a high-tech brand of magic for children as young as kindergarten and as old as eighth grade. He wrote on his website that his act made use of his disparate “training in gymnastics, dance, acting, and even microchip programming.”

He employed similar skills in teaching Cambodian children English during his travels to the southeast Asian country, he wrote.

Members of the public who have questions, concerns or information regarding this case should call 617-748-3274, federal prosecutors say.

Those challenging conditions are among the hurdles faced by divers working in the Patapsco River to recover the bodies of several construction workers presumed dead following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Authorities have been searching the waters where the bridge once stood since early Tuesday morning when a cargo ship crashed into the span, causing most of the 1.6-mile bridge to topple.

Late Tuesday, authorities announced they were shifting the operation from a rescue to a recovery mission, presuming the six people who remain unaccounted for following the collapse could not have withstood the sub-50 degree waters for the entire day.

Wednesday evening Maryland State Police announced they had recovered the bodies of two men, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, found inside a pickup truck beneath the water. The remaining victims, trapped beneath the wreckage, must be extricated via a salvage operation, officials said.

Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said divers worked throughout the day Wednesday after a careful assessment of the debris field. Overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard, dive teams have come from numerous local departments including Baltimore City’s fire and police departments, Baltimore County’s police and fire departments, Maryland State Police, Maryland Natural Resources Police and crews from Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties.

Scott Parrott, a Baltimore fire captain who has been working on the dive team, said divers have faced enormous challenges in the Patapsco’s murky, cold waters, chief among them visibility. When divers submerge themselves, they have 12-16 inches of visibility, Parrott said. When the bridge collapsed, however, the concrete and asphalt that covered its roadway turned to a fine silty dust. That silt is stirred when divers move around the water, he said, clouding their visibility to almost nothing.

Absent visibility, divers have been relying heavily on sonar imagery of the wreckage below the water. That sonar, which can detect vehicles and also human remains, located several vehicles beneath the surface, Wallace said. So far, the operation has been focused on five vehicles — three passenger vehicles; one construction vehicle, likely a tow-behind cement mixer; and one unidentified vehicle, he said. All have been found within 20-30 feet of where the roadway landed, despite the strong current, Wallace said.

Parrott said divers have approached each of the vehicles located by sonar and were able to search inside. Crews have also checked a 15-20 foot perimeter around each vehicle in case an occupant may have been able to escape.

Authorities have been aided by one of the survivors of the collapse, an unnamed Maryland highway inspector who was on a portion of the bridge that did not fall, Parrott said. That man was able to run to the end of the bridge and later gave the dive team information about the layout of the construction site, helping them estimate where vehicles and victims may have landed, Parrott said.

“Even though he’d been through a very traumatic experience, he was able to be an essential part of our initial response,” Parrott said. “I commend him because he was very shaken up. He almost died.”

There are still portions of the site that remain too unsafe for divers, Wallace and Parrott said. A wide berth has been given to the area around the ship itself. Some of the containers aboard are leaning precariously, creating a hazard, Wallace said.

“There’s a very strong possibility that they’re going to fall left off the ship,” he said.

As a safety measure, divers are also connected to lines that tether them to boats at the water’s surface, Parrott said. Those lines are wired for communication, so divers are in constant contact with the surface, Wallace added.

Parrott likened the sonar imagery divers are using to a flashlight in the woods. The light bounces back from trees, and there are dark spots behind them. If a body is hidden behind a metal object, it’s difficult to find, he said.

“They’re not seeing each other for the first time,” Wallace said. “As an incident commander, you always look for that level of continuity, and we certainly had it today.”

Parrott said he has trained previously in the area around the Key Bridge, although never in the shipping channel. Typically, Baltimore’s dive teams are searching for cars or people who have fallen into the harbor, sometimes capsized boats, he said. The scale of the wreckage crews are now navigating, however, is unthinkable, he said.

“This is a once-in-a-career situation,” Parrott said.

James Feeley, 56, of Winthrop, appeared Thursday morning in the Superior Court in the same outfit he wore three months ago when his case was first arraigned in municipal court in East Boston, but this time he was wearing glasses.

Feeley pleaded not guilty to seven counts of aggravated rape and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child. Defense attorney Stephen Neyman said he had no comment on the matter following the proceeding.

Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley ordered Feeley held on the same bail and conditions as were imposed at the earlier, East Boston arraignment on Dec. 27: $200,000 cash bail, no contact with the alleged victim or her family, no contact with anyone under 16 years old, that he surrender his passport and any firearms and that he stay in the Massachusetts other than any exclusion zones.

Curley scheduled the case as one “most complex” and set a tentative trial date of March 3, 2025. The case’s next scheduled hearing is set for June 5 at 2 p.m.

Prosecutor Audrey Mark, the chief of the Suffolk District Attorney’s office’s child protection unit, argued that the high bail is necessary because of the “seriousness of the alleged crimes” and because of the stiff maximum penalty of 10 years in state prison.

Further, she said, Feeley himself had admitted to his wife, to the Winthrop Police chief and to investigators following his arrest that he had raped the child some “five to six times” while the child was between 10 and 11 years old.

The rapes are alleged to have occurred, she said, at Feeley’s own home on Winthrop’s Pleasant Street between August 2022 and December 2023. The child first reported the incidents to an adult on Christmas Day of last year.

Feeley is alleged to have orally raped and fondled the child, Mark said. She added that when the defendant’s wife found out about it and confronted him, “he did not deny the abuse.”

Feeley was arrested after Winthrop Police Chief Terance Delehanty told a Massachusetts State Police detective that the officer  had called him from his parents’ graves at Winthrop’s Belle Isle Cemetery and told him that he was “in a bad way.”

Delehanty said he believed that Feeley was suicidal and that Feeley told him “wait until I tell you what I’ve done,” before disclosing that he had had sexual contact with the child.

Boston Police say they arrested Francis Gomez, 36, in Brighton Wednesday night for two incidents of “peeping in windows” at residences on Donnybrook Road and Beechcroft Street, both in Brighton.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment at municipal court in Brighton Thursday and is being held in lieu of posting $5,000 bail. The judge ordered that if Gomez were to post bail, he must stay away from the target areas

A woman living on Donnybrook Road called police last Thursday to report that several nights before, on March 17, she saw a man “walking back and forth, outside her residence, staring at her window” for a period of time around 2:30 a.m.

His behavior, she told a detective, scared her so much that she “immediately got onto the floor because she was terrified of being seen by this suspect” when he made his way up to her porch, according to the police report.

The woman and her housemate told police that the man, who they said was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood wrapped tightly around his head, walked up to the porch and they could hear “the outside doorknob jiggling,” police said.

Police canvassed the area and came up with a video recorded from a Blink security camera installed on a nearby home. They showed a still of a man roughly matching the alleged victim’s description to her and she agreed that was the man she had seen.

Police say the still was of a man they knew to be Gomez, who they wrote in their report has “exhibited this type of behavior in the past on numerous occasions” and has a history of breaking and entering, or attempting to do so.

Another similar alleged incident occurred the same night, this time on Beechcroft, where a woman reported a man walking around her house with a flashlight and looking into her windows.

She told police he started with her downstairs kitchen window before making his way around to her bedroom window, after which she called police. When police arrived, they found no suspect “but did find a plastic chair in the driveway directly in front of the victim’s window” which the victim said did not belong to her.

Police were also able to recover video from the Beechcroft Street neighborhood.

In June of 2022, Gomez was arrested and charged with breaking and entering in the nighttime and possession of burglarious instruments related to an incident on Gardena Street in Brighton, according to the incident’s police report.

In that event, the caller said she walked out of her bedroom toward the bathroom of her home a little after 5 a.m. and was surprised to find a man, who the police say is Gomez, running away through her kitchen.

“I try to do peepee over in the corner and the lady she see me and I go, man,” Gomez allegedly told officers after the woman identified him.

Police say they found plyers and a screwdriver in his pants pocket at his arrest.

The Rwandan genocide took the lives of about 800,000 Tutsis, the ethnic minority of the country, over 100 days in 1994. Boston-based prosecutors say that Eric Tabaro Nshimiye, 52, was one of the many perpetrators of that horror while a politically involved medical student there.

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Nshimiye from his Uniontown, Ohio, home on March 21. He made an initial appearance in federal court in northern Ohio, where he is detained until he appears in federal court in Boston at an as-yet-unscheduled date.

The feds say that Nshimiye, who also goes by the last name Nshimiyimana, was a medical student in the small, central African country at the University of Rwanda campus in Butare starting in 1991.

Butare is a city in the south of the country known to be more cosmopolitan, intellectual and diverse than the rest of the country as a whole. Despite the vibrant setting, the feds say that while at the university, Nshimiye was an active member of the ruling MRND political party, which was led by Rwandan’s ethnic majority the Hutus. At the time, according to charging documents, the Hutus made up 85% of the country’s population.

Observers say that Hutus dominated the Republic of Rwanda ever since it gained independence from Belgium in 1962 and instituted policies that discriminated against and in some cases enacted violence against the Tutsis, leaving many of the ethnic minority to flee and some to form a rebel guerilla army known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

The RPF invaded Rwanda from neighboring Uganda and forced the Hutu leader to agree to political power-sharing agreements bridging the two ethnicities. But on April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down, which an affidavit supporting the charges in this case described as an assassination that “precipitated a period of political and ethnic violence in Rwanda.”

In particular, Hutu extremists with positions of power in an interim government formed after Habyarimana’s assassination, called for the killing of prominent opposition figures, including Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians,” HSI Special Agent Matthew Langille summarized in his affidavit. “Included among those killed were government ministers opposed to the extremists.”

The killing spread all over, as Hutu soldiers, civilians and militias, including the youth militia of the MRND party — to which prosecutors say Nshimiye belonged and trained with in a field near the university — “engaged in genocidal mania using machetes and clubs to beat and hack to death thousands of Tutsis wherever they were found.”

The feds say that Nshimiye played an active role in identifying Tutsis at the university and the hospital and also stationed himself at roadblocks to help identify Tutsis. Prosecutors say his involvement became more physical and that fellow killers as well as survivors have identified him “as among the most vicious University students” during the genocide.

Witnesses specifically told investigators of the time Nshimiye allegedly killed a mother and then took a machete and spiked club to the woman’s 14-year-old son. He would then participate in burning their bodies. Another witness said that Nshimiye also regularly raped and killed Tutsi women.

The feds say that Nshimiye fled Rwanda to Kenya after RPF rebels defeated the Hutu extremists in power and the genocide came to an end. He was then granted asylum to the U.S. as a refugee in 1995 and soon sought to become a permanent resident, a status he was granted in 1998. He became a naturalized citizen in 2003. He has lived and worked in Ohio since 1995.

The feds are refusing to make any further installments of Bulger’s case file public, saying the records are “investigative” and no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

“The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. Therefore, your request is being administratively closed,” the FBI stated in a letter to the Herald Monday.

They did not divulge what investigation Bulger’s case could still be linked to, considering the former Southie mobster was murdered while in a West Virginia prison in August 2018 by two fellow inmates. He was 89 and wheelchair-bound at the time of his death.

It has also long been speculated that Bulger hid millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts that have yet to be discovered.

Bulger’s former FBI handler, John “Zip” Connolly, is also back in Massachusetts on a compassionate release and is appealing his case. He was given only years to live.

Other former Winter Hill gang associates — including Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi — are alive, but Flemmi’s Florida parole date is set for 2218.

Still, the FBI does not want Bulger’s secret file to “interfere” with whatever case may or may not be percolating, the letter states. The Herald is appealing the decision.

“It’s a joke,” said Steve Davis Wednesday. “There’s no way in hell they shouldn’t tell all. It’s not right to all of the loved ones of victims still looking for answers.”

Davis has fought for victims’ rights ever since his sister, Debra, was reportedly slain by Bulger in 1981 – when Connolly was Whitey’s FBI handler.

Bulger was found guilty in August of 2013 in federal court in Boston for the murder of 11 people, as well as numerous counts of extortion, money laundering, drug dealing, and firearms possession. But he took to his grave the dirty dealings he had with the Boston branch of the FBI when he was killing with impunity.

“The whole thing was corrupt from the get-go,” said Janet Uhlar, a juror on Bulger’s 2013 trial. “They put out a lie. He was never an informant, he bought information from the FBI.”

Uhlar, who added she shared 70 letters with Bulger after the trial, said she still wonders what role the CIA had with the serial killer while he was locked up early in his life and submitted to an LSD experiment.

“His mind was manipulated by the CIA and he shouldn’t have been let out into the public,” she said Wednesday. “The other guys were as dirty as dirty could be.”

In an addendum to the FOIA denial sent to the Herald, the FBI states “Congress excluded three categories of law enforcement and national security records” from the public records law. That includes “records of intelligence sources, methods, or activities.” And, they add, the FBI “can
neither confirm nor deny the existence of records pursuant to FOIA exemptions.”

It’s as if Bulger never existed.

“They don’t want to reveal what they have,” Uhlar said, adding sitting on the jury was “disturbing and changed my life forever.”

The limited information the FBI has made public is mostly canned mob work with bookies and fixing horse races. The murders, leaks, double-dealing, life on the lam, and intel possibly gleaned from Bulger once he was caught in Santa Monica, Calif., in June of 2011, will never see the light of day.

He was living with his lover Catherine Greig with $822,198 in cash hidden in the wall inside their apartment. She did time and is now out.

Bulger’s secrets, however, remain locked up for eternity, with another appeal as the only hope.

James Feeley, 56, of Winthrop, faces seven counts of aggravated rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years old. A Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on March 4.

He is set to be arraigned on the new charges Thursday at an unknown time.

Feeley himself had admitted to police that he had sexually assaulted the child, according to the redacted criminal complaint released following his first arraignment in the case at municipal court in East Boston on Dec. 27.

A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf there on the then-charges of aggravated rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.

Feeley was a lieutenant with two decades of experience at the Winthrop Police Department, according to previous reporting. Feeley was placed on administrative leave following his arrest and the department has since fully severed ties.

In an interview summarized in the criminal complaint, Winthrop Police Chief Terance Delehanty told a Massachusetts State Police detective that Feeley had called him from his parents’ graves at Winthrop’s Belle Isle Cemetery and told him that he was “in a bad way.”

Delehanty said he believed that Feeley was suicidal and that Feeley told him “wait until I tell you what I’ve done,” before disclosing that he had had sexual contact with the child. The assaults, according to the complaint, “occurred on unknown dates and times presumably in Winthrop.”

“This defendant made the reprehensible — and ultimately deadly — decision to indulge his rage by firing into a group of people who were gathered to enjoy fireworks in honor of Independence Day,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “That decision cost Felicity Coleman her life and handed her family and friends unending sorrow and grief.”

A jury convicted Kristian Maraj, 26, of Dorchester, on Feb. 9 of both manslaughter and illegal firearm possession. This week, Judge Anthony Campo sentenced Maraj to 17 to 20 years in state prison on the manslaughter charge and a concurrent four-year sentence on the firearms charge.

Prosecutors say that Maraj was in a crowd of people who were celebrating Fourth of July 2020 in the early hours of the next morning by lighting fireworks from the intersection of Stonehurst Street and Norton Street in Dorchester.

At some point, prosecutors wrote in their statement of the case, Maraj and another, unknown man got into some kind of argument. Maraj then brought out a pistol, which the other man knocked out of his hands and to the ground. An unidentified friend of Maraj’s picked up the gun and ran toward Maraj’s Hamilton Street house as the fight continued on the street.

When Maraj’s father stepped between the two men, someone stabbed him and father and son ran off, with Maraj purportedly yelling, “They stabbed my father!”

Maraj came back, in a rage, with his gun and fired directly into the crowd, striking and killing 34-year-old Felicity Coleman.

Coleman’s cousin read a lengthy statement before sentencing and promised to come to “every parole hearing to remind all how this man took an innocent life with no remorse and how he is a danger to society and has already proven so.”

“No amount of justice can bring her back or ease the pain of her loss, but it is my fervent hope that the severity of this crime is met with appropriate consequence,” the cousin said, later adding “Although my cousin was not her killer’s direct target, he did have a target in mind. Please remember that this man made his decision to kill prior to doing so.”

“May Felicity’s memory be a beacon of light in the darkness, guiding us through our grief and inspiring us to cherish each moment we are given. Though she may no longer walk among us, her spirit will forever live on in our hearts,” her cousin continued.

Patrick Harland, 30, of South Boston, is charged with first-degree murder, seven counts of armed assault to murder, witness intimidation, accessory after the fact and carrying a firearm without a license. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in Suffolk Superior Court on Tuesday, where he was held without bail. His case is scheduled to return for a hearing on April 4 at 2 p.m.

Two other men, Dasahn Crowder, 21, of Quincy, and Tyrese Robinson,19, of Randolph, were arrested the day after the Dec. 30 shooting and killing of Curtis Effee, 41, of Boston. They were charged with first-degree murder on Jan. 2 at municipal court in Dorchester.

Prosecutors say that Harland and his girlfriend went to an apartment in the 400-block of Geneva Ave. in Dorchester the night of Dec. 29 and hung out there for several hours. Sometime after midnight, some sort of verbal altercation took place that pitted Harland and his girlfriend against Effee.

The fight escalated enough that Harland called for some murderous reinforcements, according to the prosecution’s statement of the case document. He allegedly sent Crowder — his girlfriend’s nephew — a Facebook message asking for his help at around 12:44 a.m. on Dec. 30, to which Crowder allegedly said “I’m coming now.”

Harland then told everyone that Crowder was coming over with a gun, prosecutors say.

Three minutes later, Crowder and Robinson arrived and the verbal altercation became a physical fight on the street. Prosecutors say that the street wasn’t empty, but that there was a “crowd” of people there, including a 10-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.

Prosecutors say that Harland pointed a knife at Effee and that Crowder and Robinson took out guns and started shooting. Effee was fatally struck, and police say he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The three alleged murderers fled the area, with Crowder and Robinson in their car and Harland running on foot.

The Boston Police Department asks that anyone with any information about this incident to contact homicide detectives by calling 617-343-4470.

A Middlesex County grand jury has indicted Peter Simon, 54, of Woodsville, N.H., on a dozen charges, including two counts of motor vehicle homicide, in connection to the rampage just weeks before Christmas.

The indictment comes after Waltham judge Ellen Caulo sided with prosecutors in January that Simon, who had a lengthy criminal record prior to the Dec. 6 incident, was a “clear and convincing” danger to the community.

Simon continues to be held without bail and will be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court at a later date, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Waltham Police Chief Kevin O’Connell said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“He is a dangerous person. He shouldn’t be out on the street right now awaiting trial,” Waltham Police Chief Kevin O’Connell told reporters outside the courthouse after a dangerousness hearing in January.

Simon is accused of running down officer Paul Tracey, 58, a 28-year veteran of the Waltham police department and Roderick Jackson, 36, a National Grid worker from Cambridge.

After allegedly crashing into the officer and utility worker at a construction site on Totten Pond Road, Simon sped away in his older model gray Ford F-150 pickup truck, colliding into multiple other vehicles before fleeing on foot, officials said.

A responding officer spotted Simon in a nearby neighborhood allegedly saying, “Police are going to kill me,” according to the report. The suspect then pulled a knife on the officer before getting into the officer’s cruiser and taking off at a “high rate of speed,” the report details.

While fleeing, Simon is said to have struck two Waltham cruisers. A pursuit then proceeded before Simon crashed in the area of 225 Winter St., where he was taken into custody.

During the January dangerousness hearing, a prosecutor highlighted Simon’s lengthy criminal history that spans decades and includes criminal charges in at least nine states.

In August 2009, Simon crashed head on into a public transportation bus while fleeing from police in Keene, N.H. Simon was sentenced in 2011 to five years in a psychiatric unit in New Hampshire State Prison in Concord but was released early in November 2015. An attorney at the time said Simon suffered from a “dissociative disorder.”

Less than a year after his release, Simon was charged with criminal threatening, driving under the influence and disobeying an officer related to a 2016 case out of Franklin, N.H.

In connection to the killings of Tracey and Jackson last December, Simon has been indicted on two counts of second degree murder; two counts of motor vehicle homicide; armed robbery; armed carjacking; three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; larceny of a motor vehicle; four counts of operating to endanger; three counts of leaving the scene causing property damage; leaving the scene causing death; failure to stop for police; two counts of wanton destruction of property; and resisting arrest.

Gracie Gancheva died following the pedestrian crash in the Fort Point intersection on Sunday, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced on Wednesday.

“It’s difficult to adequately express the scope of tragedy in losing someone so young,” Hayden said in a statement.

“My staff and I extend our deepest condolences to Gracie Gancheva’s family, friends and loved ones,” the Suffolk DA added.

The incident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Congress and Sleeper streets, near the Boston Children’s Museum.

Officers found the child lying on Sleeper Street. The girl was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The child was with family at the time. The driver of the Ford F-150 pickup truck that struck her remained on scene, and no charges, citations or arrests had been made. The Gancheva family lives in Denver, Colorado, according to published reports.

The incident remains under investigation by Boston Police accident reconstruction detectives.

The City of Boston has been targeting “major” safety upgrades at that Fort Point intersection.