Bullets, bowling balls flew when gang beef flared at Dorchester lanes

Members of rival gangs from Dorchester and Mattapan briefly turned Boston Bowl on Morrissey Boulevard into a battleground early on Aug. 15, with a member of one gang shot at in the parking lot and a member of the other having to evade bowling balls hurled at him - before somebody caught up with him and punched him in the face hard enough to break his nose.

Some details of the brutal war between the Cedar Street Bears in Mattapan and the Dorchester Avenue Mavericks, which has included shootings and murders, surfaced this morning at a Boston Licensing Board hearing on the incident at the city's only 24-hour bowling alley:

According to police, members of one of the gangs were enjoying a quiet night of bowling when members of the rival gang showed up shortly after 3 a.m. A dispute began, security rushed over to break things up and escort one group out to the parking lot - where a white Charger with two members of the rival gang, alerted by a phone call from inside the bowling alley, pulled up, a man got out and fired twice. He missed, then got back in the car, which sped away. The people who had been shot at got in their own car, drove about 10 feet, then stopped, got out and headed back towards the bowling alley.

Bowling-alley security guards kept the doors open to let everybody outside in - in case the shooters returned and tried to open fire again.

Inside, the now really angry group spotted a member of the rival gang and began chasing him up and down the lanes. "They chased down the individual; they tossed bowling balls at him," one of the officers who responded to the incident told the licensing board. But it was a punch, not a bowling ball, that broke his nose.

Police praised the bowling alley for letting people back in, even if it meant another flareup of the beef - because anybody outside would have been sitting ducks in a drive-by. And because Boston Bowl requires IDs for early morning entrance, police were quickly able to zero in on suspects in the incident.

Paul Walsh, in charge of security for the bowling alley, said he's taken several steps since the incident to reduce the odds of further trouble - including closing a side entrance overnight, forcing would-be customers to pass through a security station. He's also looking at training for his staff on "active shooter" incidents.

"This is an ongoing feud we've had for years," one BPD detective told the board, estimating the members of both gangs are between 18 and 25. "This is a way of life for some individuals," he said. "They enjoy it, they like it, they just don't stop."

The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.