Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Wednesday will issue a formal apology to two men wrongfully arrested in 1989 by police investigating the killing of Carol Stuart, case that fanned racial tensions in the city.
Stuart was killed by her husband, Charles Stuart, who also was also shot and hospitalized. He lied to investigators and said the gunman was a Black man, leading to the racial profiling of many people, especially in the neighborhood where the shooting took place, Mission Hill.
Charles Stuart would eventually kill himself when his brother confessed to police that he was an accomplice in the scheme. The false accusation and police investigation sparked intense racial tensions in the city.
Wu is set to apologize to Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett for their arrests at a news conference at Boston City Hall Wednesday morning. Swanson is set to be in attendance, along with Bennett's family and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox.
"This dark time in the City’s history exacerbated distrust between Boston’s Black community and the Boston Police Department," Wu's office said in a statement Tuesday. "Acknowledging this painful moment and apologizing for the City’s wrongdoing is an effort to aid in the healing of those still living with this trauma and our City as a whole."
The former CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts spoke to NBC10 Boston about how he felt at the time when the arrests occurred.
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“Your stomach sank because what was stated in the media and the onslaught was just something you will never, ever forget,” said Darnell L. Williams, who was a young man in Boston at the time when many Black men felt they were automatic suspects.
“I think an apology is good but how do you compensate somebody having to endure something of this magnitude," Williams asked.
The case is the subject of a docuseries that aired this month on HBO and an investigation in The Boston Globe.
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The Globe's investigation found that detectives didn't act on tips that Charles Stuart was the killer and that by the time of the confession, more than 30 people knew the truth.
