A Boston city employee is facing criminal charges after allegedly playing a role in a deadly shooting in April, marking the fourth recent arrest of an individual working for Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the Boston Herald reported Friday.
Jacqueline Cherisme, a Boston Public Health Commission employee, was allegedly behind the wheel during an April 19 drive-by shooting that resulted in the death of a bystander, according to the Boston Herald. Cherisme, who has been employed by the health commission since 2019, was arrested in June and charged with accessory after the fact, two counts of witness intimidation and two counts of withholding evidence from an official court proceeding.
Cherisme’s passenger, Charles Dixon, allegedly opened fire on a man who owed him money, striking two bystanders and killing one, according to the Boston Herald. Cherisme went to the police just hours after the shooting and provided false statements, prosecutors allege. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Boston Mayor Opens City Hall Doors To Chinese Communist Party Members)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu waves while marching in the Pride Parade in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 10, 2023. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
“The Boston Public Health Commission is aware of the pending criminal charges against the employee. This person has been placed on unpaid administrative leave,” a Boston Public Health Commission spokesperson told the Boston Herald. “They are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we are following a customary administrative process, which is necessary before further action.”
The case is part of a trend under Wu’s administration, which has seen several city employees arrested over the past few months.
Daunasia Yancey, a deputy director in the city’s Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement, remains employed on unpaid leave months after being arrested and charged in April with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to Boston 25 News.
Yancey, a self-described “Black queer femme leader,” allegedly slammed her girlfriend’s ex-wife into a wall over an altercation over a birth certificate in a safe, Boston 25 News reported. In addition to her role at the city’s LGBTQ office, Yancey founded the Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matter Grassroots Network in 2014, her website states.
In May, two other city officials — Marwa Khudaynazar, the chief of staff for the city’s Office of Police Accountability, and Chulan Huang, a business manager in the Office of Economic Opportunity — were arrested on domestic violence charges, according to WCVB 5 ABC. They were both placed on unpaid leave and fired by the city days later.
Neither the Boston Public Health Commission nor Wu’s office responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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