(NECN: Josh Brogadir, Boston) - It was a tense, emotion-filled night in Roxbury.
Hundreds of young people were here, and dozens still remain, trying to come to terms with the death of their friend.
"Stop trying to be tough, just love each other," said Michelle Wigfall to the crowd.
She is a neighbor of the stabbing victim.
Overflowing emotions, hundreds of young people standing and sobbing and praying across from the place where 15-year-old Lance Hartgrove was stabbed to death in Roxbury's Dudley Square.
"It hurts, it hurts real bad. You can't understand the pain unless you have someone taken from you like a child. I brought him into this world. He's my son. He's my seed. Words can't explain it. It grabs at you. Fifteen years old, he would have been 16. December 10, 1996, he was born, he would have been 16 years old. He didn't even start his life," said his father, Lance Hartgrove Sr., speaking exclusively to us about his son.
And at the same time, he is praying that his son's friends gathered here will find an end to the violence that has plagued their young lives.
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"He did not deserve this. We are going to honor his death in a very respectful way. We're not going to be violent, we're not animals, we love our children just like everyone in the world loves our children," Hartgrove Sr. said.
The atmosphere extremely tense, a crowd ran up the street to the same parking lot from the stabbings one day ago - police took four into custody on a car theft.
But this group of young people was already on edge.
Soon after, police again had to intervene to break up an altercation.
Then it happened two more times.
"My son was only 15, that's my baby," said Hartgrove's mother, Towanda Kellam.
Earlier in the day, outside Dorchester District Court, his mother spoke about how her son had been threatened through Facebook, and had been attacked the past few months.
She saw this coming.
"He didn't have a criminal record, they told me there's nothing they can do because he had not broken the law. I wanted them to put a bracelet on him, to keep him in the house and they didn't want to listen. They came after him, no one did anything about it," Kellam added.
In court, 18-year-old Rula Jones hid his face.
He was arrested at the homicide scene, but as of now, he has not been charged in connection with the stabbing, but for violating the terms of his release on an unrelated disorderly conduct charge from January.
Police call this gang related, and are still looking for others involved in Lance Hartgrove's death and the non-fatal stabbings of two others.
It happened just across the street from a movie shoot, a detail officer there made the arrest.
No one there was hurt.
