On a warm spring afternoon in Boston, a beloved 74-year-old Black or African American woman named Eleanor Maloney was enjoying the day outside her home on Mattapan Street when her life was tragically cut short. On April 6, 2019, the retired operating-room technician, who had dedicated 44 years to Boston Medical Center, was struck by a stray bullet and killed in the crossfire of a gun battle that erupted on her street.
She was an innocent bystander, caught in a senseless act of violence that had nothing to do with her.
The shootout involved two main individuals: Eleanor Maloney’s own grandson, 37-year-old Anthony Davis, and 23-year-old Dane Henry. The two men reportedly got into an argument, which quickly escalated into a gunfight where they exchanged a total of 16 rounds. During the exchange of gunfire, Davis was shot in the leg, and Henry was shot in the arm. Tragically, a bullet also struck Eleanor Maloney in the head, killing her as she stood with other family members.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Boston Police launched a thorough investigation that led to the arrests of four individuals. Both Anthony Davis and Dane Henry were charged with murder. Prosecutors acknowledged the difficulty in proving which man fired the fatal shot but pursued murder charges against both under the legal theory of "transfer of intent," arguing that since both men were trying to kill each other, they shared the blame for the death of an innocent third party. Two other men who were with Henry were also charged with lesser offenses, one for lying to the police and the other for evidence tampering after allegedly trying to hide Henry's gun.
The case brought profound grief to the community and Maloney's family, who remembered her as a "beautiful woman" and a "fierce protector of her family." The tragic irony of her grandson being one of the individuals charged in her death added another layer of sorrow to the incident. In the end, one of the men, a Roxbury resident, pleaded guilty to several charges for his part in the gun battle and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in state prison. The arrests and charges brought a measure of accountability for the death of a cherished grandmother who was senselessly killed outside her own home.
