News

Boston police investigating reports of teens terrorizing South End businesses

BOSTON — Boston Police are working to identify a group of teens accused of wreaking havoc in the South End. Several business owners and neighbors say the kids have been threatening them and destroying property just for the thrill of it.

One of the owners at Evolve Residential retail shop and design studio – an architecture and interior design firm – says that same group of kids has repeatedly made direct and disturbingly violent threats toward him and his staff.

Police are now investigating perhaps his most hostile encounter yet after he says those teens tried to break his windows and smashed his planter, laughing as they ran away. That incident allegedly occurred around 4:15 on Friday afternoon.

"I saw a gang of about five or six young boys, running like a bat going that way," said Lisa Emirzian, a neighbor.

>>>MORE BOSTON NEWS: MBTA upgrading sections of Red Line over four weekends

It was a brief crossing of paths that Emirzian didn't have much time to react to, until after a group of teens rushed past her on Shawmut Avenue near West Concord.

"I didn't realize why they were running so fast," she said. "They almost knocked me over. Then, by the time I got up here and seen what they did, they were long gone.

"They were laughing and thinking it was a really good time. It was like a sport for them, they were having fun doing it."

Several neighbors and business owners are now sharing strikingly similar encounters with similar juvenile suspect descriptions.

"It's a recurring group of vagrant kids just up to no good," said Yvan Bodart, a neighbor.

T​​​​​he owner of Artefact Home Décor on Washington Street – less than a mile away – says a group of teens also just came into her business, destroying merchandise for the thrill of it before unapologetically sitting down on a couch.

One store owner tells Boston 25 News that he has provided police with images and footage of the teens he says have been harassing him.

Police are not definitively linking the case to other reports of teens wreaking havoc around the area, but they do encourage those who have future run-ins to call 911, to help police keep tabs on the problem and deploy resources accordingly.