'Right now, it doesn't feel like the safest city in America'

Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald on Jul 6, 2026

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BOSTON — Officials and residents are asking for resources to make Boston safer after a chaotic and violent July 4.

Thirteen people were shot, two fatally, in five separate incidents that occurred throughout the city Saturday night into Sunday morning. Additionally, two people were stabbed and officers were assaulted by fireworks. No arrests have been made and the Boston Police Department has not released the names of the victims.

City Councilors Erin Murphy, who represents the city at-large, and Ed Flynn, of District 2, filed a resolution calling for a public safety summit.

“After another deadly holiday weekend, we cannot simply issue statements and move on. Boston deserves answers, accountability, and a real plan,” Murphy wrote in a statement.

In addition to the summit, the resolution also calls for Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Police Commissioner to brief the city council on their “Summer Safety Plan” and to hold a collaborative review with stakeholders, including community leaders and residents.

District 7 Councilor Miniard Culpepper, who represents parts of Roxbury, where most of the shootings occurred, said that he’d work with the councilors on a summit.

“We’re going to work with anyone who works for peace,” Culpepper said at a press conference Monday outside the Roxbury branch of the Boston Public Library to discuss the need for additional, preventive resources for the community.

“For now, it complements it,” Culpepper said of Flynn and Murphy’s plan and his. “We hope that it all comes together.”

Asked if more cops should be on the streets, something the other two councilors have advocated for, Culpepper responded, “I leave that to Commissioner Cox, but I do know part of the answer to the question is the community. When we have community policing, it’s when we have peace.”

Culpepper said that he’d like to see a “supplemental budget for peace,” saying, “I pray that we look at more money to fund the groups that do the work every day.”

He stood with several members from anti-violence community groups, as well as faith leaders and District 4 City Councilor Brian Worrell, whose constituents also include Roxbury residents.

“We are calling on everyone to put down the guns, stop the community violence,” Worrell said at the press conference. “This is not normal.”

For a successful plan to be in place, Worrell said, “it needs to be everyone at the table,” including the people standing around him and others who care about the neighborhood.

Minister Randy Muhammad, the founder of Boston’s chapter of the 10,000 Fearless Peacemakers, called on the community to help step in.

“To the community, I’m calling on us, because elected officials and the police have their job to do,” he said, “but it’s all of our responsibilities to make our community a safe and decent place to live.”

He said that he respected the work of the police, but that their work often comes after violence happens.

“Let’s invest not only in the after,” Muhammad said, “but let’s invest in those that are doing the work to prevent the crisis.”

Steven Wilson Jr. of the Ella J. Baker House noted continued rhetoric about the city’s safety stats.

“We keep saying these things, and we keep hearing these things: ‘This is the safest city in America,’” Wilson said. “Right now, it doesn’t feel like the safest city in America. Right now, for people who look like me, it doesn’t feel like the safest city in America.”

Culpepper spoke about the irony of how the more the phrases about Boston being the safest and most peaceful city get discussed, the more budgets for safety and peace get cut.

“We need to talk about the reality of the situation,” Culpepper said.

Local resident Purple Reign said she attended the press conference while one of her family members, who’d been shot over the weekend, was in surgery.

She said that work had to be done in the neighborhood to prevent the violence from happening to being with, namely promoting job and educational programs for young people.

Reign expressed frustration with ongoing gun violence.

“When you leave the house with a gun, that’s premeditated,” she said. “You’re not going to sit for dinner, you’re not going to read poetry.”

She also noted that prevention and policing have to work together. “I believe in Black Lives Matter and I believe blue lives matter,” she said.

During a different press conference earlier in the day, Wu had said she was working closely with Commissioner Cox in the aftermath of the violent weekend. Responding to a question about department staffing levels, she said during her tenure, Boston Police Academy classes were the largest they’d ever been.

“We’ve added hundreds of new officers to the force,” she said.

She also mentioned the city’s crime stats.

“We are still at historic lows compared to any point in our history, now that does not mean that we are easing off in any way,” Wu said. “We will not be satisfied in the city until our numbers are zero.”

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