Two Held in Fatal Ashmont Street Shooting

BOSTON, July 25, 2017—A Mattapan man and a co-defendant extradited from Georgia were held without bail today on murder charges stemming from the June shooting that claimed the life of 20-year-old Christopher Austin, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

SHAQUILLE BROWN (D.O.B. 12/7/94) and KEITH COUSINS (D.O.B. 7/8/87) were arraigned today in Dorchester Municipal Court following Cousins’ return from Marietta, Georgia, where he was apprehended by local, state, and federal authorities on July 14. Brown was already in custody on an unrelated assault case.

Assistant District Attorney David Bradley of the DA’s Homicide Unit told the court that both defendants had been identified in the course of an ongoing investigation by Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk prosecutors into Austin’s June 28 shooting on Ashmont Street. Austin died of those injuries on June 30.

The investigation was aided in part by surveillance imagery from a nearby business, prosecutors said. In that footage, a blue two-door coupe can be seen parking near the corner of Washington and Ashmont streets with Cousins behind the wheel and Brown as a passenger. The footage allegedly shows the two men exit the vehicle and walk across the street, and a parking enforcement officer tickets the car. Both men then return to the car.

Shortly before 10:00, Austin walked out of a nearby park and entered a corner store. When he walked out, prosecutors say, Brown ducked down as if he did not want Austin to see him. Austin continued toward Ashmont station, at which point the defendants followed behind him in the vehicle. A short time later, witness statements and other evidence suggests, Brown followed Austin on foot and engaged him in a brief conversation before producing a firearm and shooting him.

Brown was represented today by attorney Mark Bennett and Cousins by attorney John Hayes. Both are expected to return to court on Aug. 18.

 

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.