Student shot after high school graduation in Seaport District

An 18-year-old was shot in the Seaport District Thursday after leaving her high school graduation, according to Boston police. 

Officers were called to 200 Pier 4 Boulevard at 11:43 a.m., Police Commissioner Michael Cox told reporters. They found the victim, a female, with at least one nonlife-threatening gunshot wound. She was taken to a local hospital. Her identity has not been released. 

The victim had just graduated from Boston Collaborative High School, Cox said. A ceremony was being held in the area, but Cox stressed that the shooting did not occur at the ceremony. A witness told NBC10 Boston that the ceremony was being held at the nearby Institute of Contemporary Art. 

The shooting likely stemmed from an altercation between two people that knew each other, according to Cox. 

Authorities were investigating two crime scenes in the Seaport District, Cox said, one of which was a parking garage. No one had been arrested as of mid-afternoon. 

TV cameras at the scene captured police taping off an area outside a furniture store, and aerial footage showed investigators focusing on a car parked on a street nearby. A witness told Boston 25 News that they were sitting at a cafe when they heard screaming. They saw a woman being taken out of a car and loaded onto a stretcher. 

Cox declined to comment when asked about how many times the victim was shot and whether or not any weapons had been recovered by police. 

Vivi Rodriguez was attending her cousin’s graduation. Families were mulling about taking photos when suddenly everyone started running down Pier 4 Boulevard, she told The Boston Globe. Rodriguez said she saw a girl in a car with blood coming from her hip. 

“This is a travesty, this should not happen,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said at the press conference in the Seaport District. “High school students attending a graduation on a beautiful day like today shouldn’t have to have that day marked with a shooting taking place and a young woman having to go to the hospital.”

The incident did not appear to be not random, and there is no ongoing threat to the public, Cox said. Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact Boston police at 617-343-4742. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling 1-800-494-TIPS.