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Shooting incident closes Huntington By Elise Harmon News Editor
A well-trafficked section of Huntington Avenue was roped off by police tape on Tuesday after a man was shot in front of Boston House of Pizza at roughly 4:30 p.m. The victim of the shooting, whose name has not been released, was transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from Boston Police Department (BPD) Officer Rachel McGuire. “I was like four feet in front of him,” Felicia Bernardo, a sophomore political science major, said. “I heard a few really loud shots and I ducked behind a car and I ran a little bit into [Symphony Cleaners and Tailors].” Northeastern University sent an NU Alert at 4:48 p.m. notifying students of the incident and warning them to stay away from the area due to police activity. BPD officers blocked off a section of Huntington Avenue from Temptations Cafe to Huntington Wine and Spirits, forcing pedestrians to turn back and cross to the YMCA side of the street. “We were working normally – we had music going,” Manuel Hernandez, an Amelia’s Taqueria employee, said. “We only noticed [something had happened] when we saw people running outside and police.”
H u n t N e w s NU. c o m
T h u r s d ay , S e p t e m b e r 24, 2015
Officers took photographs of the scene, made measurements and interviewed witnesses. Karnee Berejiklian, a sophomore health sciences major, lives nearby. “So I was just looking out my window and I heard a really loud sound and it sounded like a gunshot,” she said. “Then I heard two more and I just wanted to know what it was.” According to the BPD statement, witnesses described two suspects fleeing the scene on down Huntington Avenue in the direction of Symphony Hall. “One was a black male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a second was a black male wearing [a] white, beige or gray hoodie and jeans,” McGuire said. Officers took down the yellow and red crime scene tape at 6:20 p.m., allowing pedestrians to access the sidewalk and stranded motorists to access their cars. In a statement sent out at 6:25 p.m., Northeastern informed the university community that neither the victim nor the suspects seemed to have any connection to the university. According to the BPD statement, the shots were fired in the area of 307 Huntington Ave., the site of Coolidge House, which has been a halfway house since 1973. “Investigators do not believe this was a random incident and are looking into the possibility that it was gang related,” McGuire said.
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Photo courtesy Charlotte Seid/Ocean Genome Legacy/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
The Okeanos Explorers’s first biological sample, a Chrysogorgia soft coral.
Photo courtesy Charlotte Seid/Ocean Genome Legacy
Northeastern University’s Ocean Genome Legacy project created a kit to preserve coral DNA.
Kit facilitates DNA research
Photo by Scotty Shenck
The Boston Police Department investigated a shooting in front of Boston House of Pizza (BHOP) on Tuesday.
Photo by Scotty Shenck
A crowd gathered on Huntington Avenue after a portion of sidewalk was closed to pedestrian traffic.
By Mack Hogan News Correspondent A kit developed by researchers from the Northeastern University Marine Science Center’s Ocean Genome Legacy (OGL) project is currently in use onboard the United States’ only federally-funded ocean exploration vessel to preserve coral DNA. Under the leadership of Research Professor Daniel L. Distel, scientists at Northeastern’s marine research facility in Nahant recently developed a lab kit for quick and easy preservation of coral DNA collected at sea. Created in response to a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the kit has been in use onboard the Okeanos Explorer since late July. “This was the first time that the ship was able to collect biological samples,” Charlotte Seid, a staff scientist with OGL, said. “Normally, their expertise is in sonar and mapping.” The ship contains a satellite dome, radar scanners and live telepresence equipment to broadcast video of the ocean floor, three engineers, 18 crew members and two scientists. “The problem was, they only had two scientists on board,” Distel, executive director of OGL, said. “They needed a way to collect and preserve these samples easily.” After NOAA publically sought a solution to the problem, Northeastern’s researchers contacted them. Ocean Genome Legacy is a nonprofit research institution and genome bank with a mission is to preserve the DNA of marine animals. The OGL acts as a resource for
researchers who want to study the data. “A lot of people are interested in the evolutionary relationship between the [different types] of coral, as well as identification at a species level,” Seid said. “Especially with deep-sea coral.” The lab kit takes existing techniques and combines them into a more portable and simple design. By offering clear instructions,simple steps and equipment, the kit reduces the amount of time scientists have to spend preparing samples and collecting DNA. The Okeanos’ Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), a machine with claw-like arms that patrols the ocean floor, collects the coral samples and brings them to the ship where scientists are able to quickly process the organisms. Before the kit was developed, the scientists on the ship were unable to easily extract DNA from such specimens. “[You had to] put it in 50-milliliter falcon tubes, shake them by hand for 30-plus minutes to get tissue to come off and put them into a solution before DNA extradition,” David Stein, an OGL research technician, said. “With the kit, the process is expedited.” Now, scientists using the kit put a small chunk of coral into a tube. The machine shakes back and forth rapidly, displacing tissue in three minutes or less. “With clear instructions and a straightforward method, it can really be used by anyone,” Mackenzie Gerringer, one of the two scientists aboard the Okeanos, said in an email
to The News. “Great for future cruises that may not have a coral expert aboard.” The OGL also included shipping labels so scientists can ship the samples to staff at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center when the ship docks. “These [samples] all need to be labeled, photographed, subsampled and preserved,” Gerringer said. “Time at sea is always limited, so we really appreciate the efficiency of the DNA preservation kit.” Still, the effects of rapid development are not fully tested. “I like the kit but frankly would rather wait to make a final comment until after the cruise to make sure the DNA samples came out okay,” Christopher Kelley, an NOAA scientist said. “In a number of the samples, the solutions after agitation looked pretty funky, but it’s quite possible that’s how they are supposed to look.” Scientists at OGL worked throughout the month of July to create the kit. “The expedition took place over four legs,” said Seid. “Two, three and four involved biological sampling, so we needed to get it on board by July 30. It was very difficult and very labor intensive.” The Okeanos is currently on the fourth leg of its expedition, which will conclude on Sept. 30. After that, samples will be shipped back to the OGL, where they will be analyzed and made available to other researchers. “There’s no new technology,” Distel said. “It’s just a simple response to an important need.”