Man charged with murder in brazen daytime shooting on Boston street

A man has been charged with murder for a brazen, daytime shooting on a street in Boston late Wednesday morning.

Officers were called to an apartment on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester just after 10 a.m. Witnesses said a man had been shot several times and then staggered into the apartment building looking for help before he collapsed.

Prosecutors said that the suspect had gone to the home in search of his possibly stolen motorcycle. After not receiving any answers, he then left the area. He returned later that day with a friend and the friend's child and spoke with the victim before shooting him twice on the porch of the home, prosecutors said. He then allegedly fled the scene on a motorcycle before he got into a rideshare. 

The victim was rushed to a hospital where he died.  

"They was just giving him compressions, like pumping his chest, trying to get him back to breathing, put him in the ambulance real fast and just try to get him to the hospital as fast as they could," said Tyson Wright, who lives in the neighborhood.

"It was just a lot of people crying, screaming, you know, trying to hold up the girlfriend. I believe it was the girlfriend, trying to calm her down."

The victim was identified as 20-year-old Victor Armani Arias Rivera of South Boston on Thursday by Boston Police. 

A man told WBZ-TV the victim was a familiar face on the street, who had just moved to the neighborhood from the Dominican Republic to go to college.

Police said it appeared to be a targeted shooting. Late Wednesday night, they arrested 23-year-old Billy Thien Nuynh of Boston. He was arraigned Thursday in Boston Municipal Court in Dorchester on murder and gun charges.

Prosecutors alleged that Nuynh told investigators that he had "just snapped," and "blacked out." 

Nuynh was held without bail and ordered to stay away from any witnesses in the case. He will return to court on September 4. 

"I think this was a situation where parties are known in one way or another and I think that's how we are following up at this point," Boston Police Superintendent Paul McLaughlin said hours before the arrest.

"This was a brazen, brutal shooting that took a young man's life and showed yet again how illegal guns in the hands of people willing to use them are a menace to our city. I grieve for the victim's family and I thank the Boston police detectives, prosecutors from my office and members of the public for all their efforts leading to such a quick arrest," Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. 

Anyone with information is urged to call Boston Police.