Four Boston Musicians Killed In Music Studio

[Janice]

Big story here in Boston.

[Janice]

Massive manhunt for gutless gunmen: Four men blown away in studio

An all-out manhunt was under way last night for the mysterious gunman who coldly and methodically shot four unarmed and well-regarded young men in a Dorchester basement apartment before fleeing in one victim’s car, police said last night.

The first victim of the bloodbath was shot in the head upon answering the door leading into the basement at 43 Bourneside St. and a flurry of bullets followed, mortally wounding two others as they sat in chairs in front of recording equipment in the rear of the apartment.

The last man was shot dead running for his life, several police sources said. All had multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body.

Police said nothing yesterday about who might have committed the atrocity or why.

“They were good kids. They were into music. They didn’t have any problems there. It was always safe,” said an emotional Jayne Boissonneault, whose son, Henry, 20, was friends with the slain men and frequently at the studio.

The victims were all graduates of Wakefield High School, and three of them were members of a burgeoning hip-hop group called Graveside.

The motive for the shooting appeared to be a mystery last night.

BPD Deputy Superintendent Dan Coleman said detectives are searching for a black 1998 Ford Escort hatchback with tinted windows that belonged to one of the dead men but was seen fleeing the crime scene. Coleman declined to identify that victim, but family members said he was Chris “Fat Boy” Vieira, 19.

Vieira died alongside his Graveside crew members Edwin “E.J.” Duncan and Jason “J” Bachiller, both 21. The trio’s longtime friend, Jihad Chankhour, 22, took a ride into Dorchester with Vieira about 7:30 Tuesday night.

“That’s the last time we saw him,” Chankhour’s cousin, Iman, said yesterday.

The home belonged to Duncan’s parents, Darnella and Linford, both Keyspan employees who were in the process of selling the housefor a planned move to South Carolina, relatives said. Their son was a Metco student who graduated from Wakefield High School in 2003 with Bachiller and Chankhour.

City Councilor Charles Yancey, who has lived in the Fields Corner neighborhood not far from Bourneside Street for 30 years, visited the Duncans yesterday and said the family was “devastated.”

“This was a young man who was gainfully employed and well-liked,” Yancey said. “His death caught everyone by surprise.”

Police sources said all four victims were basically good kids who had minor scrapes with the law.

Bachiller, who lost his parents when he was 6, was on probation for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, a source said.

Last summer, Duncan and Vieira were arrested on Revere Beach by a state trooper assigned to a gang unit. Both men were illegally carrying 8-inch folding knives, according to court records. Vieira, who was additionally charged with marijuna possession, was sentenced to six months’ probation. Duncan’s case was dismissed in exchange for community service.

Yesterday, Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole vowed to bring the man responsible for such a cold-blooded act to justice.

“I’m concerned primarily about two things. The families of the four victims who died senselessly. My heart goes out to them,” O’Toole said. “Second, finding a perpetrator or perpetrators for this crime.”

The bloodshed could have been worse. The father of a young Dorchester man told the Herald yesterday his son was invited to the basement studio a few hours before the murders, but declined to join the soon-to-be-slain quartet for the evening.

“He hung out with them,” said the man, who lives about 50 yards from the crime scene. “They’d call looking for him but my son was at work.”

Basement of bloodshed

Sources said the shootings in the rap studio basement at 43 Bourneside St. in Dorchester unfolded as follows:

1. The gunman knocked at the ground-floor back door, a short door that forces those entering to stoop slightly. The young man who answered, sources say, was immediately shot dead.

2. The gunman then entered a small alcove before turning left into a finished portion of the basement outfitted with music equipment.

3. The next two victims were slain as they sat in chairs toward the rear of the room, with shots to the body and head in each case, sources said.

4. The fourth victim attempted to flee the basement by racing past the gunman. He was pursued and shot by the gunman as he tried to exit, sources said.

[Janice]

Pals’ music silenced

Death imitated art.

Members of the prophetically named rap group Graveside talked the gangsta talk, but wouldn’t walk the walk, according to one DJ who helped leave their meteoric mark on Boston’s hip-hop scene.

“They were super passionate about their music,” a stunned and saddened Peter Parker said yesterday of Edwin “E.J.” Duncan, 21, Christopher “Fat Boy” Vieira, 19, and Jason “J” Bachiller, 21.

Parker, a radio personality with 97.7 WILD-FM, promoted the band’s locally released breakout mix CD.

“Their songs were violent, horrific, gun-talk music, but they were very good kids,” Parker insisted.

“They were dictating what they saw around them, but they weren’t participating in it. It was a Schwarzenegger movie — pure fantasy.

“They were working their asses off,” he said. “They were trying to get a record deal. If you’d given them another year, year and a half, they would have been fine.”

Edwin ‘E.J.’ Duncan
Duncan, 21, the handsome, thin son of Darnella and Linford Duncan, graduated from Wakefield Memorial High School in 2003. His parents, both Keyspan employees, were planning to move from their Dorchester home to South Carolina. Duncan worked for Wendy’s, according to Parker. Friends said he also was a baggage handler at Logan International Airport.
His cousin, Donna Smith-Williams, said Duncan had been down of late about the death of his grandmother the day after Thanksgiving, but “was well-mannered and didn’t hang out in the streets.”
“E.J. was a very good boy,” she said. “He stayed out of trouble and was mostly at home because it was a safe haven. He wasn’t into drugs or guns. He was about music.”

Jason ‘J’ Bachiller Bachiller, 21, lost both his parents when he was only 6 and was raised in Wakefield by an aunt and uncle who took him to Mass every Sunday, according to family friend Janice Bambury.
“He always called them Mom and Dad,” she said of Bachiller, a 2003 graduate of Wakefield High. “It’s such a tragedy. He was not an aggressive person..”
For the past two years, Bachiller had been interning as a music producer for a Boston recording studio. An employee there said he saw Bachiller in the hours before his murder and all appeared fine.

Chris ‘Fat Boy’ Vieira
Vieira, 19, of Reading, son of Elizabeth and Anthony Vieira of Wakefield, acquired his nickname for tipping the scales at 230 pounds, friends said. A 2004 graduate of Wakefield High, he worked as a mason by day and practiced with the band at night.
“We’re just devastated,” said his uncle, who would identify himself only as Carlos. “He was a great kid.”

Jihad Chankhour
Chankhour, 22, was simply a friend of the group who had gone to Duncan’s Bourneside Street house with Vieira. Chankhour came from a sprawling family of Syrian immigrants who settled in Wakefield, where they opened a gas station and auto repair shop.
Aziz Chankhour, owner of Wakefield Auto Tech, learned of his brother’s death yesterday afternoon and began to cry, said Richie Rosen, an owner of neighboring Banner Glass Shelmar.
“The whole family are really close. Very good people,” Rosen said. “Jihad was real quiet, a nice kid. All he was into was his family.”
Chankhour studied culinary arts at Wakefield High, graduating in 2003.

[Ireneparalegal]

I pray to God the bastard is caught and convicted and forever put away. Cold blooded bastard.

[MissZero]

damn shame i hope they find that *******!

[Pitooey]

How sad, how sad........... I hope they find who did this. Those boys had so much to live for. What a shame.

[Brian Damage]

What a horrible tragedy.

[dawsongirl]

What a sicko (or sickos). I hope someone douses them with gasoline and lights them on fire. And then proceeds to toast marshmallows over their burning flesh.