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Boston: Police seek the killer of Emmanuel Benjamin Saintvil as friends mourn 8th Grader

As police seek shooter, friends mourn 8th-grader

Youth slain outside church had just made honor roll

December 24, 2006

Family and friends of Emmanuel Benjamin Saintil , 14, placed roses, candles, and photographs yesterday at the spot outside the Mattapan church where the eighth-grade honor student was shot and killed Friday evening.

As police searched for suspects in the city's 72d homicide of the year, Saintil's 13-year-old friend, who was wounded in the shooting, described yesterday how an older teenager had approached the two boys as they walked along Cummins Highway from the younger teen's house to Saintil's at around 6 p.m.

He said the older teenager, who had the hood of his mustard-colored sweatshirt drawn tight around his face, stopped, pulled out a gun without a word, and shot Saintil in the chest as he turned to run away.

Saintil's friend said he was shot in the lower back as he ran in the opposite direction. He was treated at Boston Medical Center and released yesterday. The Globe is withholding his name because he is a witness to the crime.

Police said late yesterday that the shooting did not appear to be a random assault.

"The significance of Emmanuel Saintil's age is not lost on investigators," Police Commissioner Edward Davis said in a prepared statement.

The assailant "walked like he was going to pass us and he just pulled out his gun," the 13-year-old said yesterday at the Mattapan house of Saintil's mother, Kettly Azor , who emigrated from Haiti. "It could have been a dare."

He said that two other youths were watching from across the street as the shooter approached.

Danny Sanon was at work in a building across Cummins Highway from the Born Again Evangelistic Outreach Ministry Church when he said he heard shots ring out.

"I heard four or five shots and the police came after that," Sanon said.

Jacques Menard , who lives next to the church, said he heard cries for help and saw a young man at his doorstep.

"I looked out my door and saw one boy on the floor, shaking."

Saintil, whom family and friends called Benjy, had just made the honor roll at Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Charlestown and was a member of the school's step squad, family members said yesterday.

On a fence next to the church, Saintil's family laid a dozen red and white roses, family photos, a Bart Simpson stuffed toy, and superhero action figures. An honor roll certificate and a small Haitian flag, which Saintil often tied around his head, was also attached to the fence.

Although the church is in Mattapan, police had said on Friday that the shooting occurred in Roslindale.

The family had recently mourned the death of another relative, Jonathan C. Jacques , 18, Saintil's cousin, who was shot at a house party on Milton Avenue over Thanksgiving weekend.

The two were always together, and after Jacques' death, Saintil had stopped hanging out in the streets as much, said relatives. While some of his friends have gotten into trouble, family members said Saintil was not in a gang.

"The young men these days need to act their age and be home reading a book and getting their education instead of acting gangster in the streets," said Saintil's sister, Tracey Azor, 19, who lived with him in their mother's house. "He didn't even make it to high school."

As family and friends streamed yesterday into Saintil's mother's house, where the family moved from Dorchester four months ago, they described Saintil as a funny, energetic boy who would spontaneously start singing and dancing in the midst of strangers.

Tall and slender, Saintil hoped to attend the Boston Arts Academy to become an actor.

"We both wanted to do the same thing," said Saintil's 13-year-old friend, an eighth-grader at Mildred Avenue Middle School who wants to be an actor.

Saintil decorated his bedroom with certificates for being student of the week and for participation in his church, the Christian Life Center in Dorchester, which he attended regularly with his mother.

Yesterday, a pile of white and black sneakers lay next to his bed. Yankees and Red Sox caps hung on the wall. He stashed boxes of cereal and soda in his room, and dozens of sample vials of Phat Farm cologne lay on his dresser.

Saintil's mother declined to be interviewed yesterday. His father lives in Taunton.