New charges have been brought in Cambridge shooting incidents in 2021 and 2023, officials said Tuesday.
A Middlesex grand jury indicted Anthony Samuel-Smith, 27, of Worcester, and Jameel Taron Clark White, 31, of Braintree, for their roles in a March 2, 2021, shooting and armed robbery on Spring and Fifth streets that left a victim seriously injured.
After coming to meet the victim and another man just after 1 a.m., Clark White shot the victim at close range and stole his vehicle – and the cocaine and fentanyl inside – with Samuel-Smith, said Middlesex district attorney Marian Ryan, Cambridge police commissioner Christine Elow and Geoffrey Noble of the Massachusetts State Police.
A nearby police detective working on an unrelated investigation heard the gunshot, came to the scene and administered first aid to the victim, who was taken to a nearby hospital. Police found the victim’s stolen vehicle, seemingly in the process of being ransacked, and Samuel-Smith’s vehicle parked nearby, the officials said. An investigation found a pistol linked to Clark White through forensic testing and a casing from a gun in the victim’s vehicle, the casing consistent with having been ejected into the vehicle when the victim was shot at close range, the officials said.
A second pistol of a different caliber tied to Samuel-Smith forensically was found on the front passenger floorboard of the victim’s vehicle, they said.
Also, last week, Jameel Dorcena, 20, of Lawrence, was arraigned in Cambridge District Court for a Sept. 28, 2023, shooting in Cambridge in which he allegedly fired multiple rounds into heavy traffic on the Gilmore Bridge.
Police responded at around 7:35 p.m. to reports of gunfire being exchanged between two vehicles. They found that more than 11 rounds of ammunition had been fired between two cars sitting in heavy traffic in adjacent lanes. Video showed the driver of a Honda Civic – identified as Dorcena – shooting into a sedan through its open window. The driver of the other vehicle allegedly returned fire, swerved into the opposing lane and hit another vehicle in front of him. Both vehicles fled the area.
State police troopers recovered shattered glass, empty shell casings, projectiles and other ballistic evidence and examined video to identify Dorcena as the driver who initiated the exchange of gunfire, the officials said.
Samuel-Smith and Clark White face gun charges and charges relating to armed robbery, carjacking and drug trafficking and are set to be arraigned April 16.
Dorcena was arraigned Wednesday on charges ranging from malicious destruction of property to assault with intent to murder. He was held as dangerous at a Monday hearing.
“These new charges reflect our commitment to prioritizing all incidents of gun violence. In these two separate incidents, multiple rounds were fired off in busy areas of a highly populated city,” Ryan said. “It is only through great good fortune that innocent bystanders were not injured or killed.”
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