Man charged with Mattapan Square shooting

A Hyde Park man is charged with shooting a man over an argument he initially had nothing to do with inside the T-Mobile store on Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan Square Wednesday afternoon, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Saquan Gaul, 23, was ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bail Thursday at his arraignment in Dorchester District Court on a variety of gun charges, the DA's office says.

According to prosecutors, Gaul decided to insert himself in a dispute between his victim, 51, and a woman inside the T-Mobile store at 1667 Blue Hill Ave. around 2:30 p.m.

Gaul and the other man walked outside and Gaul then shot him in the hand and thigh. As the man slumped into a chair that happened to be sitting outside the store, Gaul fled down River Street and Edgewater Drive, the DA's office says.

A witness pointed police to an Edgewater Drive store that Gaul had entered, the DA's office says: "Gaul was found to be in possession of a Taurus PT. 22 caliber handgun with what appeared to be a spent shell casing jammed in the barrel's breach, prosecutors said. He was also found to be carrying a plastic bag of crack cocaine."

Gaul was formally charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm and possession of a Class B substance as a subsequent offense based on a 2015 conviction for possession of a class B substance. He was also charged as a Level III armed career criminal for a 2014 assault conviction and two convictions in 2012 for assault and battery on a police officer. The Level III charge means longer potential sentences should he be convicted.

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