skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From
The Boston Globe:
A teenager who was charged with manslaughter and had escaped from a mental health facility while awaiting a final resolution on the case was fatally shot Sept. 6 night in Mattapan, officials said Sept. 9.
Police said Jeremy Price (pictured), 18, was shot on Astoria Street about 8:30 p.m. Price was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he died of his wounds, police said.
Price was charged with manslaughter in the 2007 killing of 41-year-old Michael Hansbury, a father from Mattapan, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley confirmed yesterday. Price, who had an IQ at the level of mental retardation, was 15 when he allegedly punched Hansbury after being encouraged to strike him by friends.
Hansbury fell into a coma after hitting his head and died a week later.
Asked about the circumstances surrounding Price’s death, spokespersons for Conley and the Police Department would say only that the investigation is active. No arrests have been made.
Price made news in May when he escaped from Tewksbury State Hospital, where he was being held while his manslaughter case was pending. He was apprehended two days later when a cousin, Jessica Lewis, persuaded him to go to her Dorchester home so he could turn himself in.
Price had also escaped from a New Hampshire facility after his arrest and was barred from another program in West Springfield because of his history of fleeing.
Suffolk Juvenile Court Judge Leslie E. Harris dismissed the manslaughter case against Price in July because he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial, the judge said in a telephone interview last night.
Harris said Price was released to the state Department of Children and Families until he turned 18 in late August. Price was released to family members after he turned 18, Harris said. The judge said he thought Price was staying with family in Fall River.
“I really hoped he would stay out of Boston and get himself established,’’ Harris said.
He added that prosecutors, Price’s lawyer, and state mental health workers were all shaken by Price’s death.
“It has been very painful for a lot of people,’’ Harris said. “His social worker cried, his lawyer was also close to crying.’’
Harris said presiding over the case was frustrating because it highlighted the lack of options for juveniles deemed unfit to stand trial. They cannot be held indefinitely, he said, but ultimately there is nowhere for them to go.
“If he were an adult, he could be held at Bridgewater [State Hospital] for up to 10 years,’’ Harris said. “You don’t have that for juveniles.’’
Attempts to reach Price’s lawyer, Cecely Reardon, and his relatives were unsuccessful last night. Lewis told the Globe in May that Price was not getting the help he needed and did not understand what was happening with the case.
“We’re not going to get the full understanding of what happened that day, but if you knew Jeremy, you would love him,’’ she said.
Hansbury’s mother, Maureen, also of Mattapan, said she was devastated when she learned of Price’s death.
“I almost feel as bad as when my own son was killed,’’ she said. “Because I know in my own heart that Jeremy Price did not set out to kill my son.’’
She did say, however, that she felt Harris erred in dismissing the case, because Price and defendants like him should be placed in secure environments so they will be safe and not harm others.
“I think Judge Harris never should have let that child out,’’ she said.
Lael Chester, executive director of the Boston-based Citizens for Juvenile Justice, an advocacy group for overhauling juvenile justice in the state, said the Price case illustrates the need for early intervention services for children who are mentally disabled.
“What was going on [with Price] in first grade? What was going on in second grade?’’ Chester asked. “Some of these things had to have been known.’’
She also said that while the state Department of Youth Services, which has custody of juvenile offenders, works hard to help children in its care, the agency does not have the resources to help mentally disabled inmates.
“I think with a lot of these cases, the agency is struggling to find a right fit, but it’s really not what they do,’’ she said.
From The Boston Globe:
