By Jon Palmer

News Correspondent

“Our neighbors have been blasting techno music for the past week,” said Ryan Ehnts, a Mission Hill resident and Suffolk University student. “They do it every day, until five in the morning, with no regard for anyone but themselves.”

Ehnts and his roommates, fellow Suffolk student Jordan Henderson and Wentworth student Evan Stogsdill, are worried about the new loud neighbors on an otherwise quiet street. They’ve been losing sleep. But when asked about the shooting Jan. 3 on the corner of Parker and Smith streets, right down the block and within earshot, they didn’t seem bothered at all.

“Hey, we’ve heard plenty of shootings before. You kind of learn to ignore it,” Ehnts said.

The shooting took place around 6:45 p.m. outside Fuentes Market on 680 Parker St. The victim was a 20-year-old male, shot in the leg. He was treated for injuries at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The Boston Police Department declined to comment any further due to the investigation still being open, but according to the website SpotCrime.com, there was no information on the shooter, and witnesses were uncooperative.

After a massacre in Mattapan that killed four people and the murdered a 14–year–old in Dorchester, Police Commissioner Ed Davis attributed the rise of violence in neighborhoods surrounding Boston to to drug-related crime. Many of the homicides occur in Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury – but last week’s shooting was closer to home for Northeastern students, as was the fatal shooting of a man on Mission Hill last month.

Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) declined to comment.

Senior Amanda Dupuis heard the shooting happening from her Tremont Street home.

“Monday night I came home, went upstairs and at about 6:45, heard some loud noises and thought, ‘hey, it’s Mission Hill, those could be gunshots’,” she said.

She said she thought she was just being dramatic, until she heard a woman scream, followed shortly by sirens and the sounds of people running.

“It’s not unexpected, living here,” she said. “I’m not like, freaked out by it, not by any means. I mean, look at those guys outside of Fuentes. Not unexpected.”

Fuentes Market, a convenience and liquor store located between the Hill and Northeastern’s campus, has a reputation as being a hangout for some rough characters. But this hasn’t stopped all four students from being regulars there.

“The people who own the store are very nice,” Henderson said. “A lot of people I know are a little sketched out by it, but its actually very nice.”

Stogsdill adds that the store is a victim of its own environment. He isn’t afraid to live in that environment, though he certainly has reason to be.

“I got mugged near there,” he said. “Hit in the head with a two-by-four. But its all about the situation you put yourself in. I had been drinking, had my laptop in a backpack, walking past the [Mission Main] projects at night. I guess if you’re not careful, it could really happen to you anywhere.”

Henderson was also mugged last year, though he, too, claims not to be scared of his neighborhood.

“I think it’s more about minding your own business,” Dupuis said. “There’s usually a reason if someone gets shot. There’s no reason for anyone to bother me.”

These students, who all live a block away from the site of the shooting, shrug the crime off as just another day on the Hill. They all repeatedly said they feel safe, and are confident that both NUPD and the BPD will keep them feeling that way.

The real problems, they said, stem from the police being more concerned about the actions of rowdy college students than those of actual criminals. Ehnts and his roommates, while unnerved by the shooting, had much to say about the priorities of law enforcement on and near college campuses in the area.

“I don’t need cops busting parties to make me feel safer,” Ehnts said. “I want them doing something about the real criminals.”

Dupuis said she feels the same way: confident in the abilities of the authorities, but wishing they would shift their attention from noise complaints to more serious things like robberies and violent crimes.

“I think the city of Boston has a lot more to worry about than college kids partying,” she said. “It bothers me that things like a shooting happen down the street from me, and yet my neighbors promptly get in trouble for having a party. Why are cops running around busting parties when there are shootings happening down the street? As I said, I feel safe living here, I feel fine about it.”

She paused and looked toward Parker Street, in the direction of Fuentes and, beyond it, toward Northeastern’s West Village campus.

“But someone obviously wasn’t safe here,” Dupuis said.