Lynner’s lost life spanned gang, family

LYNN – Police identified the man slain on an Olive Street porch last Saturday as a gang member, but Tony Pich’s friends said he left gang life several years ago.”He put it away and started working,” said Manny Keo Monday as he stood next to a candle-and-bottle memorial set up in front of where the 21-year-old was shot.Police continue searching for Pich’s killer. They identified the Olive Street house where he was shot at 2:30 a.m. on a porch facing Fayette Street as a Crip gang hangout but did not say if his death was gang-related.Pich pleaded guilty two years ago to two counts of carrying a dangerous weapon after police found two “butterfly knives” inside a car he was sitting in.His June 16, 2006 arrest came a day after police, according to a report filed in District Court, got in a “physical altercation” with Crips who told officers, “We declare war on the Lynn police.”Pich’s friends acknowledge his gang involvement but described him as a hard worker at Christian Book Distributors who was devoted to his parents, three sisters and two younger brothers.”He kept everyone together,” said Luis Santiago.Keo and Santiago said Pich attended Marshall Middle School and got involved in the late Frank Morani’s Club America program. He earned a general equivalency degree two months ago, crediting his parents with motivating him to complete the degree program.His death capped off a violent month that included at least a half-dozen shootings in which three people were injured. It also occurred a day before shots were fired Sunday afternoon in the vicinity of 528 Summer St. That shooting is under investigation.Vivian Showstead and her daughter, Naomi Butler, live off Williams Street near Fayette and said Saturday’s shooting adds a new dimension of crime to a neighborhood that has seen car and house breaks.”It makes me nervous it’s so close,” Butler said.She moved from Everett with Butler eight years to take advantage of Lynn’s low home prices. The pair like where they live but wish police spent more time in their neighborhood.”They should bring in the National Guard and clean the place out,” Showstead said.Santiago and Keo said Pich’s death could be linked to past problems on Fayette Street but did not offer specific thoughts on why someone would shoot him.”It was just the wrong night be out there,” Santiago said.