Residents Call for Increased Communication in City Meeting to Address Gun Violence

Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine A. Elow, Mayor E. Denise Simmons, and City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 faced heated questions from residents over the Cambridge Police Department’s response to an unsolved fatal shooting in North Cambridge at a Tuesday night community meeting.

The meeting, held at the Peabody School in North Cambridge, took place two weeks after 21-year-old Angel Nieves died after being shot multiple times on Clifton Street — the second shooting in Cambridge since the new year.

More than 100 residents and city officials — including nearly the entire City Council — attended.

Several residents criticized the officials for a perceived lack of communication about the incident and asked why the city did not provide more information about the shooting in the immediate aftermath. Several residents stated that, though they heard the gunshots outside, they were unaware of what had happened until the following morning.

Within an hour of the shooting, CPD notified residents through their Tip411 and NextDoor systems — though residents must opt in to both services. CPD’s statement about the shooting was also posted on their website, and later verified by the DA’s office communication channels. The same information was also disseminated via the city’s daily email blast, according to city spokesperson Jeremy C. Warnick.

Joanna Jimenez — Nieves’ mother — attended the meeting to urge residents and city staff to work together to resolve lingering complaints.

“This had to happen so that we can come together and speak in a room where pain, hurt, and whatever it is that we need will be the pillar in our community, so we can do better,” Jimenez said.

“Don’t be hard on the community, the community is here,” she added, addressing her neighbors in the audience.

In her prepared remarks, Elow confirmed CPD has been working with both the Massachusetts State Police and the Middlesex District Attorney’s office to investigate the incident, though no arrests have been made since the shooting.

But as residents continued to press for answers — many of which Elow could not provide — the meeting turned to focus on how the city will address gun violence going forward.

Though Cambridge saw more gun violence in 2024 than in the past five years, CPD Superintendent Frederick Cabral told attendees that crime trends in the city were “pretty stable.”

“We are coming off of literally historic lows in the early 2020s. 2020, 2021, and into 2022 were some of the lowest crime rates in the history of the city. So, it may be raising a little bit, but it's not anywhere near the peak it was,” Cabral said.

Still, arrests for six shootings in the past year — including that of Nieves — have yet to be made.

“Some of the challenges that we have is having people that are willing to go into court and say ‘This is the person,'" Elow said. "We’re lacking eyewitness testimony to go in and help us with these prosecutions.”

Despite the setbacks, Simmons said she is committed to reducing gun violence in the city.

“Gun violence has no place in Cambridge,” she said.

—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.