By Laura Crimaldi
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The city’s latest victim of gun violence dreamt of buying his mother a house away from the Cathedral public housing project where he was shot dead on Thursday night, his sister said.
The mother of Frederick Mathieson, 34, was on her computer waiting for her son to come back from the store when she heard four gunshots outside her apartment, said Mathieson’s younger sister, Danee.
“It happened right outside,” she said. “My mother is still in shock. It happened at, I guess, 11:40 (p.m.) and she called me at 1:40 (a.m.) I thought I was dreaming. She’s like, ‘Your brother’s dead.’ ”
Mathieson, who has not been identified by authorities, is the city’s 55th homicide victim this year, a police spokeswoman said.
Authorities said police assigned to nearby District 4 heard the gunshots coming from the housing project and arrived at the 42 Harrison Archways crime scene within seconds. Officers applied pressure to Mathieson’s wounds until he was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Mourners lit candles, wrote messages and left flowers at the fence where Mathieson was mortally wounded. His sister said the family does not have enough money to bury her brother, who has 10-year-old son Freddy and 4-year-old daughter Nishell.
“He wanted to get out of this neighborhood. He wanted to buy my mother a house and provide a better life for his children and his family,” said Danee Mathieson, who grew up with her brother in the Cathedral project.
“He was not into gangs at all. He was the kind of guy if there was ever a fight, he would be the first one to walk away,” she said.
Mathieson said her brother was studying heating, ventilating and air conditioning at Kaplan and performed rap music under the stage name Freddy Flac.
“He really was a good guy,” she said. “He didn’t deserve to die.”
