March 26, 2007 -- A brilliant, polished Southern belle who moved to New York to work in public relations was gunned down in a seedy Boston neighborhood - caught in a gang shooting at a rowdy after-hours party.
Chiara Maria Levin, 23, who spoke seven languages, traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, and dreamed of working as a translator, was killed by a bullet to the head when she wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time early Saturday.
The beauty, with long brunette curls and a stunning smile, was a native of Danville, Ky., who had graduated from the University of Michigan last June and moved shortly afterward to 100 Maiden Lane in downtown Manhattan.
"If there ever was anyone who lit up a room, it was her," said Arielle Myers, 21, a sorority sister at the university.
The tragedy unfolded in Boston, where Chiara had gone to celebrate a great-aunt's birthday. On Friday night, she went partying with friends.
When a bar closed at 2 a.m., she and two pals complained that bars in New York stay open until 4 a.m. A group of men overheard the remark and offered to take the revelers to an after-hours party in Dorchester, a neighborhood plagued by gangs and violence.
Of course, the shooter is responsible for Chiara's death -- not the Boston solons who created the 2 AM booze cutoff. However, were Boston to allow bar patrons to keep partying into the morning hours, there'd be no need to look for after-hours parties in seedy neighborhoods far out of sight of the municipal police.
Boston needs to re-think this dangerous bit of nannyism.
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