A-B Violent Crimes Down 11.5% Compared to Last Year

Last Sunday morning saw a wild melee near the Kells in Allston Village that lead to two arrests, confiscation of a hidden handgun, and an injured police officer.

Despite last weekend's mayhem, the latest statistics from the Boston Police Department show that violent crimes in 2009 year-to-date are down 11.5% compared to the same period last year.

Statistics released by the BPD for the D-14 service area show that the combined number of incidents of homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft are down from 1,275 incidents in 2008 (January 1 - September 7) to 1,128 incidents for the same period in 2009, a decrease of 11.5%.

Only the categories of robbery and assault saw an increase in D-14 over the previous year.

Back at last weekend's the Allston Village melee, the police report describes the officer as succeeding in disarming one perp while being surrounded and attacked by the large group of thugs:

Upon arrival, police said they observed Paulo Santos, 20, of 80 Hancock St. in Dorchester, allegedly place a firearm into his pants and pull his shirt over it. The officer drew his weapon and ordered Santos to keep his hands away from his weapon.

However, at this time, the large group surrounded the officer and began punching and kicking him, but the officer was still able to retrieve the gun from Santos.

Captain Mancini, to whom do we submit a nomination for a medal?



Note: The Boston Police Department modified some of their district boundaries between 2008 to 2009 -- which can affect crime statistics for individual districts, although D-14's boundaries were unchanged.

Image of BPD cruiser by velkr0 provided through a Creative Commons license.