2018 Portrait / Personality
 First Place
Craig F. Walker, Boston Globe
Alexis Smith is the mother of Ameen Lacy, who was shot in Boston, MA. When three teenagers were shot outside a Mission Hill community center in December, their family members’ fear was compounded by their confusion, as they rushed to get
to the victims’ bedside. The teens were taken to different hospitals, where doctors scrambled to save their lives. But two of the young men, including 17-year-old Lacy died. “I don’t know exactly what happened,’’ said his still-grieving mother. “I don’t know who is supposed to reach out to a parent whose son gets murdered.” Smith is among Boston’s walking wounded — mostly black and brown mothers, friends, and witnesses left traumatized in sections of the city rattled by episodic gun violence. Their grief is often hard to detect or see. And efforts to assist them do not seem enough.
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