Police: Eliot Street Crimes an 'Aberration'

Citizens and police officials remain on alert following a pair of Eliot Street gunpoint robberies last week; crimes which the police captain of the E-13 district called out of character for the neighborhood.

“It’s highly unusual particularly to have two robberies in two nights down there,” Boston Police District E-13 Captain Paul Russell said in an interview.

Russell referred to the crimes – one at the Eliot School and one on Dunster Road on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28, respectively – as an “aberration.”

“Overall in the neighborhood we’ve had a great start to the year,” he added.

Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 25, violent crime in Jamaica Plain is down 36 percent over the same period in 2012, Russell said.

The suspect in last week's robberies, described as a black non-Hispanic male, about 20 years of age, 5’9”- 6’1”, slim build, wearing a zippered gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, running sneakers with white strings in possession of a handgun, likely used the Jamaica Way and Morton Street to flee the area toward Mattapan both nights, according to a Boston Police blog post. 

Police have stepped up patrols in the neighborhood including marked cruisers and plain clothes patrolman, but the 30-year Boston Police veteran said the best thing residents can do is call 911 if they think something in the neighborhood is amiss. 

“So many people feel like they’re bothering us,” Russell said. “They see something suspicious, out of place or out of character, they see it and they don’t call 911. I ask them don’t hesitate to call 911, let us respond to check out the situation. If it’s nothing so be it.”