2 fathers slain in Boston drive-by

Two fathers were killed early yesterday and a third man was seriously wounded after a car pulled up to their vehicle in Milton and someone fired at least 14 rounds at them, authorities said.
Asa C. Finley, 26, of Mattapan was already dead by the time the driver of the Toyota Camry he was traveling in pulled up at Carney Hospital in Boston about 2:30 a.m., said Norfolk District Attorney William Keating.

He was the third person in his family to be shot to death, grieving relatives said yesterday.

The front-seat passenger, Rodney Almond, 37, of Milton died at the hospital, while a third passenger, Almond’s younger brother, 26-year-old Kenneth Harris of Mattapan, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The name of the driver, who was uninjured, was not released for his safety, Keating said.

The hail of gunfire occurred at the normally sleepy intersection of Randolph Avenue and Brook Road after the victims left a nightclub called The Vault in Randolph, Keating said. He declined to comment on a motive but said the shooting was not random. The fatal shootings were the first in Milton since Oct. 24, 2000.

A father of three, Finley had lost two cousins to gun violence.

“When the phone rang, I just knew it was one of those calls,” said his cousin, Dwight Thompson. “All I can hear in my head is his mother saying, ‘What am I going to tell the kids?’ ”

The younger of two children, Finley was raised in Roslindale and attended West Roxbury High School. A “phone-tech nut and Xbox demon” who loved basketball, he earned his graduate equivalency degree and was a full-time student studying chemistry at Roxbury Community College - when he wasn’t changing diapers and taking his three kids to day care and on family outings, relatives said.

“He wanted to do so much with his life,” said Stacey Montiero, his girlfriend and the mother of his children, ages 5, 3 and 1.

“His dream was to get a good job and provide for his family,” said his aunt, Maria Pruitt.

“This is what hurts the most,” said Kevin Bostick, a childhood friend. “His children are so young, they will never know him as their father.”

Odessa Ford, a friend of Almond’s, described him as a “nice young man, very polite.”

“He tried to help you if he could,” Ford said.

Almond’s sister, Stephanie Harris, said her brothers went with Finley and the driver to The Vault to meet up with friends and go to a party in Boston, but they never made it. No one from The Vault responded to requests for comment.

The eldest of six children, Almond was born and raised in Dorchester, attended South Boston High School and worked for his grandfather’s moving company.

He lived with his longtime girlfriend, his son and his stepson, all of whom his sister credited with changing his life.

“He made mistakes but learned from them and had a heart of gold,” Stephanie Harris said. “We need to stop the violence. They’re killing off our black men.”

Referring to recent shootings in nearby Randolph, Keating said, “If people look at this as a wake-up call, I think they’ve been asleep for a very long time. I hope people understand that what’s occurring on the street affects them, as well. Everyone is in jeopardy when this kind of reckless violence happens.”