Lenox Street Projects

Lenox Street Projects is a mixed income housing project in Lower Roxbury section of Boston better known as the South End, Massachusetts]]. The 376 unit three story brick buildings where built in 1939 and was the first housing project in Boston, that African American families where able to move in.^[1][2] In recent years, it has become infamous for violence and gang activity. Home to the Lenox Dogs Posse (L.D.P) and a younger generation of youth, The Lenox Street Cardinals the housing project hails home to some of Boston's best rappers (Cool Gsus, McVay, Drastic Measures, Flames Bond, Red Da Beam).

COMMONWEALTH vs. KIM ANDREWS.427 Mass. 434 http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/427/427mass434.html The jury heard the following evidence. Two privately employed security guards, Rui Carvalho and Earl Lacaillade (the guards), were on foot patrol in the Canfield Gardens housing complex in the Roxbury section of Boston on the afternoon of December 1, 1994. At about 4:30 P.m., the guards heard three gunshots coming from Kendall Street, approximately fifty to sixty yards away. Both guards drew their guns and ran in the direction of the gunshots. They saw three black males standing on the sidewalk along Kendall Street. On seeing the guards, two of the males fled down Kendall Street toward Shawmut Avenue. One of the two males was holding a handgun. The third male (later identified as the defendant) fled in another direction toward Ditmus Court. The guards pursued the defendant as he ran around the comer of a building. After coming around the comer, the guards stopped and saw the defendant, with his right arm raised and extended, standing about eight feet from the victim, Jimmy Hinson. Hinson was backing away from the defendant, with his arms raised in a defensive manner. Hinson fell backward onto the steps of a building on Ditmus Court, and the defendant fired his gun four times at the victim. Carvalho was standing some fifteen to twenty feet from the defendant at the time of the shooting; Lacaillade was slightly farther away. Carvalho immediately recognized the shooter as the same young, light-skinned black male whom he had seen "over one hundred times" in recent weeks in the general area around the Canfield Gardens housing complex. The defendant made eye contact for one second or more with Carvalho, then fled, with Carvalho in pursuit. Carvalho gave up the pursuit after a block and returned to the crime scene. Lacaillade, who had stayed behind to assist the victim, immediately radioed for police assistance. Hinson was transported by ambulance to Boston City Hospital, where he died three days later from massive internal injuries caused by the gunshot wounds. Columbia Point Issues

While many members of the CPD returned to the newly minted Harbor Point development in the early 1990s, others settled in other areas of the City. In the early 1990s, the CPD identified Ramsey Park in Roxbury as prime drug trafficking turf, and began moving operations to that location. Ramsey Park abutted the Lenox Street housing development, however, and drug trafficking operations in the park were run by the Lenox Street gang. During this period, the CPD and Lenox Street engaged in a series of shootings and homicides over drug distribution in the park.

http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/450/450mass395.html#foot1 On August 16, 1991, the victim, Steven Gaul, was standing with several friends close to a park bench in Ramsey Park, near Lenox Street in the Roxbury section of Boston. The victim lived in Columbia Point, in the Dorchester section of Boston, and was a member of a gang of young men from Columbia Point known as the Columbia Point Dawgs. The defendant and two other men, K.J. Walker and David Walker, all wearing black hooded sweatshirts, entered the park. The defendant and his two companions were all associated with the Lenox Street gang. The three men approached the victim, and K.J. Walker shot him once in the stomach and then ran out of the park. The victim fell to the ground. The defendant then stood above him and fired several shots directly at him. The defendant's gun jammed and there was a pause in the shooting as he removed the bullets wedged in the gun's chamber. As he did so, the victim reached up with his hands raised. The defendant said, "I told you I'm gonna get you, bitch," and, after reloading the gun, fired several more shots at the victim, who fell back to the ground. Patrick Culbreath, a friend of the victim, was watching from across the park and fired several shots at the defendant, who returned Culbreath's fire. The defendant then walked toward the park's entrance and was joined by Steven Kindell, who was wearing a white shirt and riding a bicycle. The two left the park together.

In March of 1991, Mark Crump, a member of the Columbia Point gang[,] was shot at Lenox Street and Shawmut Avenue. And there was further testimony that some people by the name of Hightower and Snead were also shot in November of 1991 in the area.

Roxbury man, 19, is chased along street and fatally shot

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) October 3, 1998 | Stephanie Ebbert, and Doris Sue Wong, Globe Staff | Copyright Tweet • Permalink A 19-year-old Roxbury man ran for his life yesterday, but was gunned down on Ruggles Street, reportedly by two youths on bicycles, as high school soccer players ducked for cover on a nearby field. Michael Chittenden, who lived in Madison Park Village off Melnea Cass Boulevard, was fatally shot just before 3 p.m. as he ran toward a field where players were gathering for a soccer match. Coaches for the teams -- from Brighton and John D. O'Bryant high schools -- herded players away as shots were fired. Chittenden was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m. at Boston Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. A city youth worker counseling children at the scene said he was told that Chittenden was with a 9-year-old neighbor in front of the housing development when two young people rode up on bicycles. …

Bust seen as respite, not cure, on Lenox St.

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) March 26, 1997 | Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff | Copyright Tweet • Permalink The bloodshed of the drug wars is visible from Irene Henderson's Lenox Street apartment, if only in her memory. Out front, 16-year-old Robert Burdette was killed in the courtyard by a stray bullet in July 1994. Out back, Paula Rosa, a grandmother sharing Thanksgiving leftovers with a friend was gunned down in November 1991 and became the 111th homicide victim of the year. Yesterday a crush of federal agents and Boston police swept the development and flushed alleged drug dealers and their crack cocaine from the midst of Henderson and her neighbors. "It'll help for a while," Henderson said. Agents from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General's office, the FBI and Boston Housing Police arrested six men on federal cocaine trafficking conspiracy charges yesterday morning. …

19 arrests are bid to ease gang tensions

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) April 1, 1994 | Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff | Copyright Tweet • Permalink Less than three weeks after the Sunday afternoon murder of 18-year-old Jeffrey Toney, who was bicycling past a church on Shawmut Avenue in Roxbury when he was gunned down, police arrested 19 people yesterday in a sweep of the Lenox Street housing development. Sources said members of the warrant apprehension team of the Anti-Gang Violence Unit targeted the Lenox development because of an ongoing feud between the Lenox gang and two other neighborhood gangs that police say led to Toney's murder. The 15 men and four woman were arrested on outstanding warrants. None was charged with Toney's killing. Police sources said Toney was a member of a gang and was thought to be selling drugs on the turf of the two rival groups, including Lenox. …

Raid aims to tackle complex's drug woes ; Residents' calls spur sweep at Lenox St.

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) June 23, 2011 | Brian R Ballou | Copyright Tweet • Permalink Police say drug dealing got so bad in and around Roxbury's Lenox Street housing development that it was like an open-air market, a gantlet of illicit activity that law-abiding residents had to navigate every day. Fed up with their complex being overrun by drug dealers, residents recently started calling police. The calls touched off a monthslong undercover investigation that led to the arrests yesterday of 21 people, some of them residents of the complex. The drug sweep, dubbed by police "Operation Tanglewood," resulted in 31 indictments, with arrests of the remaining 10 suspects expected soon, authorities said. "Thank God they did that," said Deborah Smith, 65, a lifelong resident of the complex, and a former president of the Lenox/ Camden Residents Association, an anticrime task force. …

Raid in Roxbury Brings 19 Drug-Trafficking Arrests

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) March 25, 2016 | Allen, Evan | Copyright Tweet • Permalink For years, the gangs have plagued the Lenox Street Housing Development. The hallways are crowded with men smoking marijuana and many residents can point to the spots where young people have been shot and killed. "There's been death after death after death," said one woman, smoking a cigarette just feet from where a young woman was murdered in her car in 2014. Before dawn Thursday, law enforcement officials swept through the Lower Roxbury complex of low-slung buildings, arresting 19 alleged gang members who they believe control most of the area's violent drug trafficking. Eight more were being sought Thursday evening. In the hours after the raids, residents expressed joy and relief - - though all spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared retribution. …

While many members of the CPD returned to the newly minted Harbor Point development in the early 1990s, others settled in other areas of the City. In the early 1990s, the CPD identified Ramsey Park in Roxbury as prime drug trafficking turf, and began moving operations to that location. Ramsey Park abutted the Lenox Street housing development, however, and drug trafficking operations in the park were run by the Lenox Street gang. During this period, the CPD and Lenox Street engaged in a series of shootings and homicides over drug distribution in the park.

While many members of the CPD returned to the newly minted Harbor Point development in the early 1990s, others settled in other areas of the City. In the early 1990s, the CPD identified Ramsey Park in Roxbury as prime drug trafficking turf, and began moving operations to that location. Ramsey Park abutted the Lenox Street housing development, however, and drug trafficking operations in the park were run by the Lenox Street gang. During this period, the CPD and Lenox Street engaged in a series of shootings and homicides over drug distribution in the park.

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