Shooting on Common sent tourists running for cover

By Jessica Fargen

Boston Herald Health & Medical Reporter

Thursday, August 30, 2007 - Updated: 07:23 AM EST

Terrified tourists on a Ghosts and Gravestones haunt walk through Boston Common got a bigger scare than they bargained for when they saw a lone gunman spray two teenagers with bullets, the Herald has learned.

The Sunday night shooting injured a 15-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy on their way to the movies and sent a stray bullet hurtling through a window of the historic State House, sparking outrage from Gov. Deval Patrick, lawmakers and police.

The pulse-quickening shots sent the 30 tourists running scared into a dark park.

“At first we thought it was firecrackers, then we looked over and saw a man shooting at a group of kids we had just gone past,” said Patrick Sullivan, 52, of Dayton, Ohio, who along with his wife and daughter witnessed the 10 p.m. shooting. “He was standing behind the bench just firing away. I don’t know how many shots there were, but it seemed like a lot from one gun.”

The group, which was about 20 yards from the shooter, scattered after someone yelled “everybody run” and shots rang out.

A British couple on the same tour told the Herald in an e-mail that they ran blindly into the night.

“We didn’t actually know where we were running to or even if we were running into more danger,” wrote Melanie Dearing, 47, who was with her husband, Peter, on their first visit to Boston. “It was a very unpleasant and frightening experience and cast a cloud on what had been a very enjoyable holiday.”

Afterward, members of the Ghosts and Gravestones tour, which promises to show “the dark side of Boston,” regrouped and boarded a trolley. They did not finish the tour.

Matthew Murphy, general manager of Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston, which runs the Ghosts and Gravestones tour, said the guide cooperated with police. The Monday night tours were canceled.

Murphy said he considered the shooting an “aberration.” Yesterday’s 6 p.m. tour, one of three scheduled last night, sold out.

“We consider Boston Common to be a very safe area by and large,” Murphy said. “It was a rare occurrence.”

Police have stepped up patrols in and around the Common in the wake of the shooting.

Sullivan said his family enjoyed their first trip to the Hub, despite the “near-death experience.”

“I think we got more out of the tour than we were expecting,” he said. “I don’t think we will forget our trip very soon.”