An apparent overdose near four children in a rundown South Boston apartment has politicians calling for an immediate cleanup of the drug activity and squatting that had already been proliferating at that particular public housing complex.
While Mayor Michelle Wu maintained Monday that some of the details surrounding last week’s incident are “rumors,” a U.S. congressman joined city and state officials for a tour of the Mary Ellen McCormack housing complex, at the request of the building’s concerned residents.
City Council President Ed Flynn said the tour included discussions about public safety challenges, planned redevelopment of the housing complex, open drug dealing that’s been occurring throughout the facility, substance use and treatment programs, and the building’s close proximity to the troubled Mass and Cass area.
“We came together this afternoon as a neighborhood and community leaders to discuss the recent horrific incident on Old Colony Avenue,” Flynn told the Herald. “This meeting and walkthrough of the public housing development was helpful.”
He added, “However, we have many significant public safety challenges and quality of life issues that remain unresolved. The Mary Ellen McCormack tenants are our neighbors and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Members of the Boston Police Department joined the tour, but did not provide any insight into the ongoing investigation, City Councilor Michael Flaherty said.
“The walkthrough was at the request of the residents of the housing development because it has been a cut-through lately for people making the Mass and Cass trek every day,” Flaherty said. “Some of the units are being illegally sublet, and there are some flophouses where there is a lot of the drug activity.”
State Sen. Nick Collins is calling for the Boston Housing Authority to “bring in a private partner immediately to support security and maintenance while a plan to transfer the management and redevelopment of the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development is put in place.”
A BHA spokesperson said demolition and redevelopment is slated to begin in 2024, a more than $1 billion project that won’t be completed until 2041. Roughly 2,000 residents will be offered temporary housing in another BHA unit.
Flynn added that while the death that occurred last Saturday, June 17, was discussed, there was no confirmation from authorities present that it was a drug overdose.
Firefighters suspect the victim, described in a police report as a 28-year-old “male to female transgender” person, went into cardiac arrest due to a drug overdose, Sam Dillon, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718, told the Herald Friday.
A spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office said Monday, however, that a cause and manner of death has not yet been determined.
In cases such as this, toxicology and other lab testing is usually performed. Results from these tests could take 30 to 40 days, the spokesperson said.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch told reporters Monday that there was drug paraphernalia found in the apartment where the death occurred, which matches what Dillon told the Herald, but disputes what had been reported by police.
The Boston Police Department issued a statement Thursday and Wu made remarks the following day, debunking some of what was reported by the media, and included in the Fire Department’s incident report.
The reports conflict, in that the Fire Department, which was on the scene first, described the adults present as uncooperative, and reported that one adult had been trying to hide the four children, ages 5-10, from first responders in a separate room.
Firefighters also reported finding the apartment in “extreme unsanitary conditions.” A 51A child abuse or neglect form was filed.
The Police Department said in a statement several days later that the adults were cooperative and the four children on site “all had a parent present in the residence.”
Police said the nature of the call prompted the department to file a 51A report as well, but stated, “Information that drugs and other concerning materials were strewn about the home is not supported by what officers encountered or by the information received on scene.”
“Our idea here is to get more facts into what actually transpired,” Lynch told reporters. “We’d like to get all the facts out there and then find out why the later reports differ from the earlier reports.”
Wu said on WBUR’s Radio Boston Monday that police arrived about 30 minutes after EMS and firefighters to begin the death investigation.
“And then the fire department left at that point,” Wu said. “If you look at the reports of the first responders there is no reason to question the integrity of any of our agencies and the words that they put into those reports. Each of them works to save lives and to ensure the safety of all involved.”
Wu refrained from describing the additional details that have been reported about the scene as “conspiracy theories,” as she did last Friday, but did maintain that she considered what had been said previously by Flynn, Flaherty and City Councilor Erin Murphy to be rumors.
“There has just been additional color and sometimes rumor injected into this from other places, and we just want to make sure everyone stays focused on letting the investigators do their work,” Wu said. “There’s an ongoing investigation into making sure that young people or children who are on scene are safe.”
Wu added that the four children are still in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
Having children remain in DCF custody for a week is somewhat unusual, Murphy told the Herald.
The Department of Children and Families would not have grounds to remove them and maintain custody “if they didn’t have real evidence that these children needed intervention and support for their own safety,” Murphy said.
Sources had told the Herald some of the adults were dressed as women when first responders arrived, a detail alluded to in the fire department’s report, which stated, “approximately six adults, who appeared to be males, were seen in the apartment.”
Flaherty had said “a man wearing a wig claiming to be the father” of the kids was found in the backroom and that people at the scene had told him drugs, alcohol and sex toys were present.
Murphy said Dillon was present at Monday’s tour, and told her that firefighters continue to stand by their report, which he said Friday was “100% accurate.”
The Herald has heard city councilors requested body camera footage, but their request was denied by the mayor and Police Commissioner Michael Cox.
“It’s going to continue to be rumors if we don’t have access to the facts,” Murphy said. The police reports, the EMT trip ticket and the body cam are all evidence that we should all have access to, so that we are not spreading rumors and that we’re not being conspiracy theorists. That’s not at all what we want to do.”
She added, “I’m just grateful that the children are in a safe space and hoping that we can move forward from this, but we need to make sure that our government is transparent. The people deserve that.”
Boston Police Superintendent Lanita Cullinane told reporters that BPD was “looking at all of the facts and circumstances that have brought us to this point.”
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Boston politicians ‘come together’ to rescue drug-ridden Southie housing complex - Boston Herald
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