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Jamaica Plain double-murder suspect arrested

Boston Herald - 5/13/2018

May 13--Cops arrested a 28-year-old Dorchester man for the double slaying that took the lives of a soon-to-be college graduate and a military veteran outside a Jamaica Plain housing project one week ago.

Police yesterday arrested Wilvin Guity, 28, and charged him with two counts of murder for the deaths of 23-year-old Christopher D. Joyce and 58-year-old Clayborn Blair, innocent bystanders at the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments when shots pierced the evening of May 4.

Guity is scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charges tomorrow in Roxbury District Court.

In a statement yesterday announcing the arrest, Commissioner William B. Evans commended the homicide detectives for their "hard work, long hours and meticulous attention to detail that led to the arrest."

"While I'm certain our city is a safer place with Wilvin Guity behind bars, I'm still angered when I think about the senseless gun violence that took the lives of Christopher Joyce and Clayborn Blair," Evans said.

He said people across the city should be able to sit outside and socialize "without the fear created and caused by those who carry illegal guns in our city."

"Chris and Clayborn did absolutely nothing wrong and most certainly deserved better fates," Evans said.

Police on May 4 responded to gunfire outside the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments and found the two men shot. More than 100 people were packed into the courtyard of the project and inexplicably turned on police and EMTs when they rushed to the scene. Joyce and Blair were rushed to area hospitals but did not survive.

Joyce, a graduate of Christo Rey Boston High School, was visiting family at the project ahead of his upcoming May 19 graduation from Salem State University with an accounting and finance degree, his family said. His mother plans to walk across the stage for her son, who family said would have been the first college graduate on the maternal side of his family.

Blair, a U.S. Navy veteran who worked as a custodian at the Pine Street Inn, was outside enjoying the warm weather. He leaves behind three adult children.

Family and friends said both Joyce and Blair had previously lived at the apartment building formerly known as the Bromley-Heath public housing complex and they were friends.

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