Gang members charged in Lynn stabbing

LYNN – Judge James LaMothe ordered two MS-13 gang members charged with stabbing a person downtown early Sunday morning held without bail Monday in Lynn District Court.Djavier Duggins, 22, of 10 Atlantic St. and Kevin O. Avelar, 22, of 110 South St. #1, were arrested around 2:30 a.m. Sunday in connection with the stabbing of a man outside 7 Willow St.Officers found a straightedge razor and a bloody pocket knife in the men?s possession, and eyewitnesses told police they saw both men assault an unidentified victim outside 7 Willow St. minutes before police stopped the men in their car, Assistant District Attorney Mark Byron said at a bail hearing for the men.?It is important to note that officers knew these two men had gang ties,” Byron said, reading from a police report.Police are also investigating the pair?s involvement in a shooting on Washington Street around the time of the stabbing, according to Lynn Police Lt. Chris Kelly.Byron said the alleged stabbing victim was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital with critical injuries and is still in the hospital.Lamothe granted Byron?s request that identities of all witnesses and the alleged victim be withheld from the public until a later time.?They are in fear of repercussions if the identities are released,” Byron said.Defense attorneys for both men did not argue against holding them without bail at the hearing.According to an arrest report, Lynn Police responding to a domestic disturbance call outside 7 Willow St. around 1:30 a.m. Sunday stopped Duggins and Avelar after they saw the Black Honda they were occupying drive through two stop signs on Oxford Street at an estimated speed of over 60 mph.Two people in a white car also traveling down Oxford Street flagged down the officers and told them the occupants of the Honda had just “attacked a guy around the corner who was down on the ground,” according to the report.Police began to pursue the Honda to Tremont Street, where it pulled over, and officers observed Duggins in the driver seat and Avelar in the front passenger seat. While speaking with the men, two officers noticed “a distinct odor” of gunpowder from inside the vehicle, “as if a firearm had just been discharged,” the report said.?We believed that (Duggins and Avelar) may have been connected to the stabbing incident?and they also could somehow be connected to the shooting incident,” Officer Paul Cotter wrote in the report.When police escorted Duggins to Union Hospital to treat a slice wound in his left knee, Duggins asked officers about the condition of the person shot at 501 Washington St., according to the report. Duggins was never told or provided any information about the shooting prior to asking the question, the report said.Officers who responded to 7 Willow St. found a man bleeding heavily from “what appeared to be a large amount of stab wounds,” according to a second police report by Officer Michael McEachern.Two witnesses gave a description of the men and the vehicle they were driving, which matched the Honda driven by Duggins, according to the report, and witnesses later positively identified Duggins and Avelar as the men who committed the assault.One witness told police the alleged stabbing victim shouted, “I?m not a gang member” several times during the attack, according to McEachern?s report.After the assault, Duggins allegedly struck one of the witnesses with the Honda as the men attempted to flee, and dragged the person a short distance. The witness was treated for abrasions at the scene, according to the report.The victims of both the stabbing and shooting incidents are no longer suffering from life-threatening injuries, Kelly said. The man shot on Washington Street suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, according to Cotter?s report.?It definitely looks like it?s not going to be a fatal,” Kelly said.Duggins and Avelar will be held at Middleton Jail pending a dangerousness hearing on May 22, the judge said. They are each charged with armed assault to murd