15-Year-Old Fires Gun In BPS Administration Building: Update

BOSTON, MA — A 15-year-old pulled a gun on another teen in the Boston Public Schools' administrative headquarters, firing one shot before he was tackled and pinned down by the victim and victim's mother, as well as building staff, officials said at a press conference Wednesday.

Nobody was injured, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, who said the first bullet lodged in the ceiling of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building before the gun jammed up, preventing additional shots.

"A tragedy was clearly averted here today," Evans said.

According to the Commissioner, another teenager and his mother were walking down from the second floor of the building when they crossed paths with the suspect. "Words were exchanged," Evans said, and then the 15-year-old assailant pulled a "large, semi-automatic handgun" from his backpack.

In the course of the struggle that followed, both the teen and his mother restrained the assailant with help from building staff, including one woman who kicked the gun away after it fell on the ground, according to Evans.

The 15-year-old who fired the shot, "I've seen him. He looks like a baby," the Police Commissioner said. "And to think he's carrying a gun of that caliber around. ... It's a wake-up call."

Evans told reporters he believed the two teens knew one another, but could not speculate further. He conceded that gang activity is potentially involved.

According to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, "The 15-year-old boy accused of discharging a firearm at the Bolling Building in Roxbury today was arraigned in the Suffolk County Juvenile Court on a complaint charging delinquency, to wit: carrying a firearm without a license, possessing ammunition without an FID card, possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number, assault with a dangerous weapon, and discharging a firearm within 500’ of a building."

He was assigned a $250,000 bail and is scheduled to return to court Feb. 14.

The incident happened around 9:20 a.m.

Staff at the building were ordered to shelter in place, and are still very much shaken up after the incident, according to Mayor Marty Walsh and BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang, who also spoke at the press conference.

Both said that the administrative building will remain open to the community, as it is now, but that they will pursue tighter security protocols going forward.

Boston Public Schools' administrative headquarters, including the Superintendent's office, is located in the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, at 2300 Washington St., in Dudley Square. The building also houses restaurants and retail businesses, according to BPS.

Story last updated 7:12 p.m., including a correction on the number of arrests based on updated information.

Photo via BPS