Ten years ago, 16-year-old Devonte Franklin was stabbed to death while aboard an MBTA bus. His murder remains unsolved today, and MBTA Transit\u2026<\/b>
\nTen years ago, 16-year-old Devonte Franklin was stabbed to death while aboard an MBTA bus. His murder remains unsolved today, and MBTA Transit Police are asking for the public\u2019s help in identifying his killer.
The attack occurred around 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 31,2008, police said. The bus was running on Route 28 and was near Blue Hill Avenue and Harvard Street in Dorchester when Devonte, of Roxbury, was reportedly \u201cstabbed multiple times.\u201d He was brought to Boston Medical Center and pronounced dead .
At the time, Jake Wark, a spokesman for former Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, said an altercation had taken place on the bus, but authorities didn\u2019t know who the teen was fighting or what sparked the incident.
Witnesses were interviewed, and investigators looked for suspects. But the case went cold.
\u201cThe violent death of any young person is senseless and tragic but consider the horrible irony of Devonte\u2019s death on New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d Conley told The Boston Globe at the time. \u201cInstead of celebrating the arrival of a new year, his loved ones are mourning.\u201d
Devonte\u2019s family didn\u2019t comment back then, other than his mother, Aretha Maug\u00e9, telling the Globe, \u201cI haven\u2019t slept,\u201d in the days following her son\u2019s violent death.
In 2012, Maug\u00e9 walked in the teen\u2019s memory in the Mother\u2019s Day Walk for Peace. The walk endeavors to bring awareness to street violence.
Devonte was struggling with his parents\u2019 separation before his death, Maug\u00e9 told the Globe in 2012. He also endured bullying at school.
\u201cHe told me the day that he died, he couldn\u2019t take it anymore,\u2019\u2019 Maug\u00e9 said. \u201cHe said I couldn\u2019t teach him, the streets were too tough.\u2026 [He couldn\u2019t] do it no more, the extra buses, the long way home to avoid conflict. He gave up.\u2019\u2019
Transit police have pledged to continue to pursue the case.
\u201cThe Transit Police Department will never give up on this case,\u201d the department said Monday. \u201cOn this ten year anniversary mark we implore anyone with information, however slight, relative to Devonte\u2019s murder and the identity of his killer to contact us. Devonte deserves your help.\u201d<\/p>\n