She bled to death from bullet wounds shortly after 9pm on
Saturday September 25th, 2021. Random gun fifire… the
neighbors reported a young man “sprayed” bullets into the group
of friends hanging outside their apartments on a perfect early fall
evening, gentle warm breeze.
She tried to walk as her legs bled, staining the sidewalk and
street. She died before an ambulance arrived.
The panicked crowd soon left the scene, yet her blood on the
sidewalk and street remained as a witness. Those stains,
recorded by hand tracing on mylar paper, are used here as stencil
templates for white spray paint.
Other than brief notes in the local police record, there has been no
public news of this shooting. At the site in Dorchester, MA, her
blood remained until a hard rain a few days later.
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Image in the background: Hand-traced Blood Strains of the Victim in Westview St, Dorchester, MA, Sept 11, 2021
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Background
The urgency of this notched up In early September prompted by this text from a friend in
Dorchester: “2 people got shot right now one boy one girl / I’m so scared for my family /
Get me out of here, Yeah, I am scared” The boy was taken to the hospital for surgery, the
girl, with a crowd of neighbors and police nearby, crawled behind a dumpster and died
bleeding of a leg gun shot wound. Our friend’s family did not eat dinner that night, did not
eat breakfast or lunch the next day. No one left that apartment until the next Monday
morning for school. We felt action needed to be taken, resulting in a direct action project
named Sidewalk Witness.
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Images Above: We chose to record those stains, by hand tracing them on mylar paper. The 3’x 20’ tracing was used as a stencil template to transfer those marks, now with white spray paint, onto the asphalt paving at the main walkway entrance to Boston City Hall. An accompanying text described the story behind the markings.
Boston City Hall, Oct 2, 2021