Oct 5, 2007 2:04 pm US/Eastern
13-Year-Old Boy Shot Dead In Dorchester
DORCHESTER (WBZ) ―
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Steven Odom, 13, was in the eighth grade at James E. Timilty Middle School in Roxbury.
WBZ
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The boy was shot near Evans and Corbet Streets in Dorchester.
CBS
Boston police believe the 13-year-old boy who was shot and killed in Dorchester Thursday night was not the intended target of the gunman.
Police said Steven Odom was shot in the head just before 8 p.m. near the intersection of Evans and Corbet Streets.
He was rushed to Boston Medical Center where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Odom's uncle Keith said his nephew was coming home from playing basketball when he was shot just outside his home.
"This death further highlights the need for the city to find a remedy to the escalating problem of violence," Odom told reporters Friday.
There have been no arrests. However, Boston police said they know who the intended target was and have several strong leads.
Police began foot patrols in there area just three weeks ago.
"Everybody should be outraged," said Sgt. Phillip Morgan of the Boston Police Department. "Everybody in District 3 should be outraged. Everybody in Weston, Wellesley should be outraged -- wherever it happened. But because it's more likely to happen here, the outrage is tempered everywhere."
Police say their new gunshot detection system called Shotspotter was able to detect the sound of the gunshots just before the first 911 calls. It also helped investigators find ballistics evidence at the scene.
(
Read more about this technology here)
Odom was an eighth grader at the James E. Timilty Middle School in Roxbury.
"He was a good kid, it doesn't make sense to me," said Odom's cousin, Nakia Snow. "He wasn't a gang-banger, none of that."
The community has erected a makeshift memorial in the area where Odom was shot.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino spent the day with the mourning community and Odom's family.
"There's no place for violence in our city, nor in our streets, our homes or our schools," Menino said. "We need to stand up and say, 'Enough is enough."
Menino said this incident has been one of the most difficult times in his entire tenure as Boston's mayor.
Anyone with information about Odom's murder is asked to call the Crime Stoppers Unit at 1-800-494-TIPS.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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