WEST PALM BEACH — Police say a man shot to death Saturday morning is connected to a savage June 2007 attack of a woman and her son in Dunbar Village.

Melvin Young, 25, was killed Saturday morning at Robinson Villa, a city-owned apartment complex on Tamarind Avenue and 22nd Street, according to police. No one has been arrested in the shooting.

In 2007, witnesses told West Palm Beach police that Young, then 14, was one of up to 10 masked teenagers who barged into their public housing complex apartment and raped and sodomized a 35-year-old woman while her 12-year-old son was beaten in another room. The woman and her son were then forced to have sex.

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The assailants poured cleaning agents on both victims and tried to set them on fire but could not find a lighter, police said. As they were leaving, the attackers took the woman's keys and stole the car she was using, forcing the victims to walk a mile to the hospital. The assault lasted for three hours.

Despite witness accounts that Young was in the room during the rape and assault, he was not charged.

Four men are serving long prison sentences for their part in the crime. Tommy Poindexter, then 18, was sentenced to life in prison. Avion Lawson, 14 at the time of the assault, is serving a 30-year term. Jakaris Taylor and Nathan Walker, both 16 in 2007, were sentenced to 65 and 60 years in prison respectively.

Others, like Young, who police suspected to have taken part, were never charged.

Dunbar Village is directly east of North Tamarind Avenue and is one of the first public housing communities in Florida.

Young was killed Saturday in the 900 block of 22nd Street, about a half-mile from Dunbar Village. Police say he was killed around 10:30 a.m.

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The city's ShotSpotter alerted officers. The system, installed the past year, helps responding officers by pinpointing gunshot locations.

Investigators are asking that anyone with information about the shooting, contact the West Palm Beach Police Department 561-822-1900 or Palm Beach County Crime Stoppers 800-458-TIPS (8477).

Young is the 40th homicide victim in Palm Beach County this year, according to the Palm Beach Post homicide database.

Staff writer Olivia Hitchcock contributed to this story.

