Around the same time Boston Police were alerted to an armed robbery at the corner of Hadley and Parker Streets in Charlestown. The victim of the robbery said that three men approached him and demanded money. When he refused to comply one of the suspects produced a firearm and demanded the mans coat. The group then fled towards Somerville with the mans coat. Despite an intense search by both Boston and Somerville Police Departments, no announcement has been made in regards to an arrest in this indecent.

Not long after the Charlestown robbery, a second armed robbery took place on Columbus Avenue near Egleston Square in Roxbury. The man reported that two men demanded his money and produced a hand gun. No further information is available about this robbery at this time.

A quick investigation lead to the arrest of Nguyen, who was held and arraigned in court this morning. The court has questioned Nguyen’s state of mind and committed him to a state psychiatric hospital for observation. Family members however do not believe that Nguyen has a mental issue, and have told media agencies they have been afraid of him for a long time.

This murder, along with two other that have occurred in the last three days, brings the city’s total to 5 for 2012.

About a half hour later police were called to 423 Shawmut Avenue for a report of gunfire. Officer arrived and found Mohamed Hassan, a 21 year old of Boston, with a serious gun shot wound. Hassan was pronounced dead at the scene due to the injuries he sustained. No official word from the Boston Police has been released about suspects, however at one point officers were looking for a blue sedan in connection with the murder.

These two incidents mark the third and fourth homicides of the year in the city.

All told four adults and five children have been left homeless after the fire. The building is believed to be a total loss. One resident, a child, was transported to the hospital for burns he suffered in the building. Five fire fighters were transported to area hospitals for various reasons ranging from lacerations to chest pains. None of the injuries appear to be life threatening.

The first incident was reported just before 9:00 pm to Boston Police who responded to calls for shots fired on Alabama Street in Mattapan. Upon their arrival officers found a female victim, who has not been named by police, inside a car suffering from a gunshot wound to her head. Boston EMS was immediately called to the scene to tend to the victim. Officers secured the scene and began to interview witnesses. The victim was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Detectives, crime scene units, and canine officers were called to the scene to investigate. No suspect information was readily available at this time.

A half hour later gunfire was reported in the 400 block of Shawmut Ave in the city’s South End. Police arrived on scene and found a 21 year old man suffering from a gunshot wound. Boston EMS arrived on scene, however his injuries were too severe and he was pronounced dead on the scene. Detectives responded to the scene and began their investigation. Witnesses reported the shooter fled the area in a blue sedan with an unknown direction of travel.

Update: The Boston Police are now reporting that the victim in critical condition at the hospital was a bouncer at the Ups and Downs bar where the fight occurred.

Fire fighters battled the blaze through out the morning from outside of the building. Multiple ladder trucks and hoses were set up to pour massive amounts of water onto the burning structure. At one point so much water was being used on the fire that a puddle began to collect in a neighboring parking lot. The puddle was over a foot deep at its highest, and required the fire department to bring in sand bags and special pumps to keep a neighboring building from being flooded out.

After battling the fire for hours the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing helicopter responded to the scene. The high tech helicopter was able to provide fire commanders with a live thermal view from the sky of the building. Due to the immense smoke and a partially collapsed roof, fire fighters were having a difficult time targeting the fire. By using the live video feed from the helicopter fire fighters were able to direct their efforts on problem spots. The Air Wing was on scene overhead for several hours before being released by the fire department. Towards the end of the fire, officials decided to switch to using foam instead of water. Foam is able to blanket the fire area and prevent oxygen from getting to the fire quickly. The effort was successful and after almost 7 hours the fire was brought under control.

During the fire officials from the Boston Fire Department posted live updates on their Twitter feed @BostonFire. They also posted dozens of pictures from the scene online at http://twitpic.com/photos/BostonFire.

It is expected that fire fighters will remain on scene through out the night working to put out the remainder of the fire. At the peak of the fire over 100 Boston fire fighters were battling the blaze. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire, and no official word has been release about the cause. At this time the fire does not appear to be suspicious. Due to the volume of the fire the entire block of building will more than likely be a total loss.

Due to the fire and fire engines accessing hydrants throughout the area there are major traffic back ups in the area.

Update at 12:15 pm: Fire Department officials are reporting that most of the fire is out at this time. They are using foam to help extinguish the last of the flames now. Fire fighters will be on scene for an extended period of time.

Update 11:00 am: Fire is still burning at this time. The Massachusetts State Police helicopter is over the fire building reporting what they can see to the crews on the ground. The helicopter is sending live images to fire commanders on the ground.

Update 10:15 am: There is still a large amount of fire in the building. Fire fighters are fighting the fire from the outside of the building at this time. There are traffic back ups on Comm Ave due to fire apparatus.

Update 9:45 am: The fire is still burning strong in the building almost 4 hours after it broke out. Fire fighters are working with other city departments to manage the large amounts of water being used at the fire.

Pictures from the Official Boston Fire Department Twitter feed are available at THIS LINK. There are many pictures from the fire today.

Check back later today for a full story.

Jump to after the break for the details.

The first document that was release is entitled “Part One Crime Data”. The document (which can be found here on the BPD’s website) breaks down the Part One crimes that occured in the city by district in both 2011 and 2012. The term “Part One” stems from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report standards, or the system that the FBI uses to collect crime information from across the country in a consistent manner. Part One crimes are against people or property, and are generally considered to be violent. These specifically include homicides (the willing non-neglegent killing of a person by another person, not including suicides or accidental deaths), rape and attempted rape (only against females, and the FBI definition is much stricter than the definition used by the State of Massachusetts), robbery and attempted robbery (both armed and unarmed), aggravated assault (an assault that results in serious injury or where a weapon was used), burglary and attempted burglary (this is used for any unlawful entry to a building whether force is used or not), larceny and attempted larceny (virtually any kind of theft from pick pocketing to theft from a building), and vehicle theft and attempted theft. When using this method of collecting data for criminal reporting, it is important to not that when multiple offenses occured, only the most severe offense is reported. For example, if a person broke into a house and stole keys (burglary), then stole the homeowners vehicle (motor vehicle theft), then struck and killed a man in the street (homicide), only the homicide would be reported. Basically, this data can be somewhat complicated to understand and may create a swayed view of the actual situation so reviewers must be caution.

By looking at the crime totals as a whole in this document the Boston Police are reporting that overall crime is down 8% citywide across all categories. Specifically 4 of the 7 categories show a decline (Rape, Assault, Larceny, and Motor Vehicle Theft), while Robbery (161 in `11 to 177 in `12) and Burglary (226 in `11 to 238 in `12) both increased. Homicide remained the same with 1 in the released time period. Looking at the crime rates geographically disticts B, C, and D saw saw double digit decreases in crime. District A (Downtown, Charlestown, and East Boston) along with District E (Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and Roslindale) both saw a 7% increase in crime. We encourage you to review the data that was released by the Department, and if you have specific questions to respond in the comments section.

The second document that was released by the Boston Police is entitled “Firearm Arrest”. This document is located on the BPD’s Website as well is not very well defined. There is no specific information made public with the date to determine where it is aggregated from or how it applies to actual activities. It is not clear if these number are derived from arrests of persons with guns or gun related items, in connection with fire arm crimes such as shootings, or anything else. However the numbers do show that there has been one fewer arrests in 2012 than in 2012. It is difficult with this lack of information to explain how this plays into the “big picture” of crime in Boston, however based solely on what is available the Boston Police seem to be on par with the previous year.

The third and final document is entitled “Shooting Data” and can be found at this link. Again this data is somewhat vague, however does show that there has was one homicide as a result of gunfire in both 2011 and 2012. From looking at the Part One data we can infer that both of the homicides were the result of gun shots in this time period. The second statistic reported in the document is non-fatal shootings, with a footnote indicating these are only incidents where a person was stuck but not killed by gunfire. In 2011 there were 7 non-fatal shootings, however in 2012 there were almost double that amount with 13.

Although we have done our best to explain how the data provided by the Police Department translates into reality, this can be a very confusing and opinionated topic. We encourage that you review the information, and use this guide from the FBI to help understand the Part One data. If you have any specific questions about the above information, please leave a comment and we will do our best to clarify for you.