BOSTON — Boston police have arrested two Boston men in connection with Tuesday’s shots-fired incident in the Back Bay area.
Rashawn Bly, 24, and Walter Coleman, 23, were arrested Tuesday evening and will be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court Wednesday. They’re each facing a long list of charges, including unlawful possession of a firearm and multiple counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
In a Wednesday morning press release, Boston police said officers found a black firearm in a closed blue city recycle bin on Newbury Street. The 9 mm gun was found to be in the “lock back” position, with the slide fully extended backward.
A witness told police the two suspects – and two unidentified people – were shooting at each other. When asked if police were searching for the two other suspects, police told Boston 25 News the investigation is “active and ongoing.”
Wendy Werbe saw the shooting all unfold through a window during a meeting inside the Mandarin Oriental on Boylston Street.
“I saw the gun and the person with the gun,” she told Boston 25. “We heard a bunch of pops really quickly and then we saw folks scrambling.”
Werbe also snapped a picture of the man she says was firing the gun as he hopped back into a white SUV. She then says people realized what was happening.
“People heard it and started running in this direction and that way too,” she said.
According to officials, a call came in at around 3:54 p.m. on Tuesday in the area of Newbury and Exeter streets for reports of shots fired.
Sky 25 video captured the massive police response to a call for shots fired just before 4 p.m. on Tuesday in the normally quiet and very safe Back Bay.
The shooting happened on Fairfield Street which was soon blocked off with crime scene tape and evidence markers covered the street while nearby car windows were riddled with bullets.
Kelly Santiago says she almost turned onto Fairfield while walking with her husband.
“This is where the shots rang out. I’ve never heard gunshots in my life. I was scared to death. They were saying run, run!” Santiago said.
Rob DeFibritis was headed back to work after a coffee break when he heard the gunfire.
“It was just out of nowhere just bang, bang, bang,” he said.
Then he saw people fleeing for their lives. “It was a big group of people running away from the shots maybe 15 to 20 people,” he said.
His friend, Roger, said after hearing and seeing that they both took off too.
“And I heard bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and everybody started running so I started and we all ran,” Roger said.
Amazingly no one was injured in what Werbe says felt like watching a real life movie, “It was very surreal to see it happen that close where you see the individual and the gun and all of this happening. It was sort of like slow motion.”
Bly and Coleman are both charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition; discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling; two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon; malicious destruction of property; carrying a loaded firearm without a license. They’re also facing the potential for additional prison time if they are convicted, under state statutes that consider previous convictions for violent crime or drug offenses, and crimes involving firearms. Coleman is also charged with possessing Class B drugs.
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