Boston Is 'A Ticking Time Bomb' DA Rollins Says Of City's Rising Violence

BOSTON (CBS) - Despite the pandemic and a curfew, Boston has had four homicides in six days. Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins called the city "a ticking time bomb, unfortunately, because as it gets warmer, we're going to have more and more people outside."

The latest murder was Thursday night outside a public housing development in Jamaica Plain.

A witness told WBZ, "I just heard a lot of screaming and yelling going on."

Police said one man was shot and killed, and another was critically injured. And at one point, the crowd turned on police at the scene. In the end, officers recovered four guns and made two arrests.

An angry Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said, "The officers were met with great hostilities from a hostile crowd. In fact, while the officers were chasing the second armed gunman, one of the individuals tried to engage the officer by tripping him."

That man was arrested also. Boston police crime data for 2020 shows an uptick in homicides, shootings, robberies and domestic violence assaults as compared to the same time last year. Some of the cause, DA Rachel Rollins says, is due to historic unemployment and the summer-like weather.

As to whether the people released from prison and jail the during COVID-19 crisis are responsible for the violence, Rollins said, "We believe that there are very, very, very small percentages that have been released on COVID-related motions that have then gone out and made bad decisions again. I can happily say none of them have committed any of the four homicides, for example, we've seen in the last six days."

But, Rollins does admit some of those released have committed nuisance crimes. She said her office and police units are working on targeting the drivers of the violence and are focused on being proactive