Neighbors of a 72-year-old grandmother, who police say suffered a fatal head injury when she was shoved to the ground by a Jamaica Plain woman last week, described the victim as well-liked in the Chinatown apartment building she called home — and say the shocking attack has other tenants rattled.
“She had a lot of friends,” one neighbor said of Yuzhen Lei yesterday through a translator.
“Everyone in the building is talking about it — they all know what happened to her.”
The elderly neighbor, who declined to identify herself, said Lei, who lived in the Chauncy House Apartments on Chauncy Street, leaves behind two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren. Her husband, she said, died last year.
Another tenant, Hai Chen, 30, called his neighbor’s death “sad” and said he was shocked to learn she had died so tragically right in front of the building.
“Everyone in this building is ?really nice — they don’t cause any trouble for anyone,” Chen said. “It just shows anything can happen.”
The attack occurred about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at Essex and Chauncy streets, police say, where a scene for the remake of “Ghostbusters” starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones was being shot.
A cameraman is being credited with helping police track down Tajanetta Downing, 27, who told officers she was crossing the street when Lei bumped into her and she reacted by pushing her onto the ground.
“Yeah, I was involved in an ?altercation with an older woman,” Downing told officers, ?according to a police report.
“She pushed me, and I pushed her back, and I kept on going. I worked overnight and got off at ?6 in the morning.”
Lei hit her head on the pavement and was taken to Tufts Medical Center, where she was treated for a skull fracture, brain swelling and bleeding and was placed on life support before ?being pronounced dead on Thursday.
Downing, who sobbed during her arraignment in Boston ?Municipal Court Thursday, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault and battery, and assault and battery on a person 60 or older. She was ordered held on $75,000 cash bail and is due back in court Aug. 5 for a pretrial hearing.
