JOHN RUCH
JACKSON SQ.—A 22-year-old man was shot to death on May 17 in the Academy Homes I housing development. It was the fourth Jamaica Plain-area homicide in less than a month.
Sheikh Kakay, an Academy Homes resident, was shot once in the chest while outside 12 Weaver Court at around 8:30 p.m., according to the Boston Police Department (BPD). He died a short time later at Boston Medical Center.
Academy Homes I Tenant Council member David James Wyatt, who focused on crime issues during his failed Boston City Council candidacy last fall, expressed dismay when the Gazette told him about the shooting. Wyatt said he does not know the circumstances of that case, but added that most street violence in the area is usually a “gang thing.”
“I just think it’s pointless,” Wyatt said of the violence.
As the Gazette previously reported, there are longstanding feuds between informal youth gangs at Academy Homes/New Academy Estates and the Bromley-Heath housing development across Columbus Avenue. Earlier this month, prosecutors charged two New Academy Estates teens with the 2007 killing of a 13-year-old boy in Bromley-Heath. The victim did not live in Bromley-Heath, but the defendants mistook him for a resident, prosecutors allege.
Last month, two teens were charged with firing handguns in Academy Homes, then fleeing from police into Marcella Park.
Anyone with information about Kakay’s killing can contact the BPD Homicide Unit at 343-4470. To leave an anonymous tip, call 1-800-494-8477 or text-message “TIP” to 27463.