More Dirt on the Lucerne Street Doggz, Officer Shooting

More news has emerged about the large group of gang members who were rounded up yesterday following the shooting of a BPD officer. Shooter Antonio Franklin belonged to the Castlegate gang, not the Lucerne Street Doggz, but the mass arrest might send a message to gang members in general.

The Lucerne Street Doggz were awfully busy. Their alleged crimes include 57 shootings, 6 murders, coke-dealing, and general havoc. One crime listed included robbing middle school students. The charges might keep them in jail for 40 years.

Commissioner Davis said that they tried to warn these gang members to "put their guns down." We'd like to know why some of them weren't in jail when they first started picking guns up.

The arrest also revealed that at least one of the gang members got to enjoy a pretty posh upbringing. One of the alleged members is Tara Julian Starring, 19-year-old daughter of former Patriots player Stephen Starring. She has the dubious distinction of being the only woman arrested and of being the alleged girlfriend of the Doggz' gang leader who calls himself "Half Dead." Indeed.

As for Castlegate member Antonio Franklin, the law visited him at his hospital bed and arraigned him. The image of him in the bed faced most morning commuters – and we note that his eyes looked hopelessly empty, and not in the pain-meds kind of way. It's like Antonio died a long time ago, and a killer took his place. Bail was set at $250,000. Seems kinda low, but we're not the law.

Franklin may be linked to the murder of Quinntessa Blackwell, who was killed by a bullet meant for his cousin. Franklin had been shot in the leg two days before Blackwell's murder. While Franklin was in the hospital, gunmen who couldn't shoot straight aimed for Franklin's cousin, perhaps to give Franklin a little reminder, and killed Blackwell instead.

Image of today's Herald cover with Antonio Franklin staring back at all of us.