Elected officials in Boston questioned the conditions of public housing Wednesday after the city's police and fire departments gave conflicting accounts of an incident at a South Boston apartment.
The death of a person from cardiac arrest and the removal of four children from an Old Colony Avenue apartment on June 17 was discussed at Wednesday's Boston City Council meeting.
The children were placed in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
What occurred inside the apartment — part of the Boston Housing Authority — remains unclear more than 10 days later, with a public statement from the Boston Police Department conflicting with details from the initial reports of the Boston Fire Department.
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The fire report said six adults "who appeared to be males" were in the apartment, which "was in extreme unsanitary conditions." It added that firefighters found four kids between the ages of 5 and 10 in a back room, hidden by a man.
All of the adults were uncooperative and denied having kids inside, the report from Boston Fire said. But in a statement last Thursday, the Boston Police Department said the adults inside "were fully cooperative with the Boston Police Officers who responded."
"I can only hope and trust that the mayor's office and all of these first responders are going to come together in an investigation to get the story straight," City Councilor Erin Murphy told NBC10 Boston after Wednesday's meeting.
Citing firefighters, Murphy told NBC10 Boston last week, "There was hoarding, lot of uncleanliness in the apartment, lots of sex toys and drug paraphernalia all over the place." Those details were also disputed by the police statement.
"Information that drugs and other concerning materials were strewn about the home is not supported by what officers encountered or by the information received on the scene," the department wrote.
Mayor Michelle Wu, following criticism for disputing reports from fire officials, said on WBUR that the public shouldn't doubt information coming from the Boston Police Department or the Boston Fire Department.
"There is no reason to question the integrity of any of our agencies and the words they put into those reports. Each one of them works to save lives and ensure the safety of those involved," she said. "There has been additional color and rumor injected into this from other places, and we just want to make sure everyone stays focused on letting everyone do their work. It's still an ongoing death investigation."
The Boston Globe reported last week that Wu had characterized reports about the incident as "conspiracy theories."
“I’ve seen the photos of the scene as part of the death investigation,” she told reporters Friday, according to the Globe. “And it’s irresponsible to be fueling conspiracy theories at this moment when we are grieving a loss of life.”
Kiara, the mother of two of the kids taken from the apartment, spoke with NBC10 Boston Friday.
"They saw several transgender people, who are my friends, and one dead on the floor from cardiac arrest, they just assumed the worst," Kiara said.
At Wednesday's meeting, City Councilor Kendra Lara came to the defense of the LGBTQ+ community, which she believes has been negatively impacted in the wake of the incident. She also thanked first responders for their work that day.
"All first responders made decisions that they thought would protect the safety and wellbeing of that family and that community," she said.
Kiara said Friday that the children were being kept away from the dead body, as police had said in their statement a day earlier. She told NBC10 Boston she "absolutely" believes the Boston Fire Department was lying about the adults being uncooperative.
"Nobody was hiding the kids," she told NBC10 Boston. "We were trying to keep the kids away from the person who was dead on the floor. That's pretty traumatizing."
"The parents and the officers who responded felt it was best for the children to stay in another room with one of the parents and took steps to avoid having the children see the deceased," police said in their statement last week. "Due to the nature of the call, and to ensure appropriate follow up with the families involved, officers did file a 51A with DCF."
Murphy said the children would not have been put into DCF custody if the children were not believed to be in an unsafe situation.
"They had to have had evidence," she said. "A judge is not going to remove children unless there's definite evidence of imminent concern for the safety of those children."
NBC10 Boston reached out to DCF Wednesday to see if the kids were still in state custody, but was told, "due to state and federal privacy there is no further information."
Murphy said she hopes investigators look into everything from police bodycams to EMS trip tickets and data about the reports.
