The latest in teenage mischief in Downtown Crossing is fireworks, apparently.
Boston police responded to reports of “a large explosion” in the intersection of Summer and Arch streets shortly before 3:30 p.m. Friday. At the scene, witnesses told the cops that “a group of teenagers had been observed igniting some incendiary device in the crosswalk,” according to a police statement.
Police soon heard another explosion nearby and went to the area of 335 Washington St., where they reported seeing “firework debris in the street” and a witness told them that four teenagers had launched fireworks from a black cylinder object.
They found the group of four alleged firework launchers in a nearby business and arrested the 16-year-old, who they said had the launch cylinder in his backpack. State law forbids the use or sale of fireworks.
The suspect, who is not identified because he’s a minor, faces a juvenile delinquency charge of throwing, secreting, launching or placing an incendiary device. The remaining three will be summonsed to appear on the same charges.
This is just the latest example of police responding to teen, or even pre-teen, incidents in the Downtown Crossing area.
The most disturbing recent case was when a group of 15 or so children beat and stomped on a woman a little more than a month ago — all captured on a widely distributed video — for allegedly racially motivated reasons that she had braids in her hair and they felt that white women aren’t allowed to have braids. The woman was Hispanic.
That was the brutal highlight in a string of youth violence in the area, beginning March 21 at the McDonald’s on Washington Street, where police say four juveniles allegedly assaulted an 81-year-old Malden man as he was eating a hamburger in the restaurant at around 9:20 p.m.
The alleged assailants continued on to Silvertone Bar and Grill, police allege, where they allegedly screamed racial slurs after being denied alcohol for being underage and then broke the restaurant’s glass door. A trio allegedly did the same thing at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse and two of the three from McDonalds and Silvertone are accused of punching a woman in the face because she refused to buy them ice cream.
At least two 13-year-old children connected to one or more of those incidents were arraigned earlier this month. But state law makes arresting and prosecuting such young suspects difficult for law enforcement.
The Downtown Crossing saga continued earlier this month when police responded to Macy’s, also on Washington Street, for reports of juveniles frightening shoppers — and attempting to leap-frog over passersby on the street — for what one child told police was just to “mess with people.”
