Young ‘superstar’ killed

Man, 22, gunned down in Mission Hill; city’s 53rd homicide

BOSTON. Described as a “big teddy bear,” a “superstar,”  and a mediator for disputes among family and friends, Shawndel Mitchell was not one to be targeted.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” said Treviian Quammie, 21, when asked who might have taken Mitchell’s life early yesterday morning in a shooting in Mission Hill.

Mitchell, 22, was found suffering from a gunshot wound by officers responding to a call on New Whitney Street around 3:30 a.m. He was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries, becoming the city’s 53rd homicide victim this year and fifth in the last 21 days.

There were just two homicides in a 44-day span before the latest surge.

An only child, Mitchell was a graduate of Boston Arts Academy who loved dance so much he dedicated much of his adult life to teaching the craft to Boys & Girls Clubs and other area youth groups, friends and family said. He was so devoted that he often chose to spend his nights at home, working on new moves and routines in the home he shared with his mother on Canterbury Street in Roslindale, where mourners gathered yesterday.

“He always used to say, ‘There’s a reason I chill in my home, I don’t want people to bother me on the streets,’” said Quammie, a close friend of the victim.

Police said the shooting is not considered random, but judging by the reaction of friends and family Mitchell was the last person to seek trouble. Just the opposite seems true of a man who had just been re-certified as an EMT.

“He was one of those people who would’ve done anything for you,” said the victim’s cousin, Kristopher Reed, 22, who described Mitchell as someone whose presence will remain. “I don’t think you will get rid of him easy.”