Graduation party in Brockton turns fatal for man, 26

The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com

By Maureen Boyle
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
BROCKTON — The first cell phone call to Maureen Toussaint was short.
"The woman called and said that my brother got shot," Toussaint, 21, said.
Then the phone rang again. And again, each time giving Toussaint another snippet of information.
By the fourth phone call, Toussaint would learn her brother was shot three times near a graduation cookout he was attending on Turner Street.
By the fifth call, she would learn he was gone.
"She called and told me he's not breathing. He's dead."
Her brother, Bensney Toussaint, 26, was found fatally wounded in the yard between 51 and 69 Turner St., shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday as a group of acquaintances celebrated a high school graduation in the driveway across the street.
Toussaint was rushed to Brockton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton said.
When police arrived, they found Toussaint in the yard suffering from what appeared to be more than one gunshot wound to the chest, she said.
Jumior Pierre, who bought his three-family Turner Street home 3 years ago, said he awoke to the sound of gunfire outside.
"I woke up when I heard two gunshots," he said. "Then I saw police."
Another woman said she heard gunshots, then chaos. "I just heard people screaming after the gunshots," she said.
Bensney Toussaint's sister, Edwin Toussaint-Jeanty, said the family was told he was attending the graduation cookout at 62-64 Turner St. with friends when an argument broke out with another man.
That man left but later returned, she said.
She said she is disappointed no one is providing police with enough information so her brother's killer can be arrested. "None of them want to talk," Toussaint-Jeanty said.
Toussaint was the seventh person to be slain in the city this year.
No one answered the door at the second-floor apartment Monday where the hosts of the party live.
Hot dogs, a jar of mayonnaise, rolls and sauce still lined a table next to a grill in the driveway late Monday morning. Warming trays sat on another table. Mylar balloons were tied to the fence.
Toussaint-Jeanty said her brother, a painter, spent most of Sunday at home, then received a call from a friend asking him to go to the graduation cookout.
"He really didn't know them," she said.
Relatives gathered at the family's apartment Monday, some quietly crying, others wailing with grief, as investigators hit the streets, trying to convince witnesses to come forward.
Toussaint came to the United States at age 5 with his parents, Wilson and Mona Toussaint, and four siblings from Haiti. A fifth sibling, a sister, was born in the United States.
His father, who was an elementary school principal in Haiti, said he fled the violence-torn country in June 1987, hoping to keep his family safe and carve a better life in the United States, where educational opportunities abound.
The family left Haiti three months after a new constitution was approved in that country, but before the general elections where dozens of people were shot by soldiers.
"I thought they would be safe here," the elder Toussaint said.

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• brockton
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• murder
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• violence
• Toussaint
• graduation
• party
• shooting

[QueenCharleen247]

I miss my cousin so much!

I love you Ben and just will be severed

[blucinemafilms]

I don't know you are Ben, but my heart goes out to you and I feel your sadness. May Ben live in your hearts for ever and may God relieve your grief with hope and peace.

[tpain341995]

itz soo sad how dat happend cuz dat happened 2 mi cuz 100% ayesein