Three men were shot, one fatally, this morning on Deering Road in Mattapan.

Police responded to the shooting at 27 Deering Rd. at about 9:48 a.m., a Boston Police spokesperson said. Of the three victims, two received non-life threatening injuries and another was critically injured and was "non-viable at the scene," Police Commissioner William Gross said at the scene.

The three men, all in their late 20s, were not publicly identified. "At this time it doesn’t appear to be random," Gross said. He called for the public's help in solving the crime, which is under active investigation.

The three victims were in a motor vehicle at one point, where they were shot, Gross said. The two victims with non-life threatening injuries were transported to area hospitals, he said.

The shooting occurred on a short residential block, populated by three-decker homes, about a block south of the B-3 police station.

State Rep. Russell Holmes said in a phone interview Tuesday that this is yet another shooting just a block from his Mattapan home. He and his wife still look out across the nearby Woolson Street every morning, he said, which was the site of a horrific 2010 drug-related quadruple murder with one of the victims a two-year-old boy.

"It's another horrible shooting and a reminder of why we push so hard," he said. "These continue to remind you why we need to be so vigilant in reducing crime." It is vitally important, he said, to get funding to programs that divert people who would turn to criminal behavior, believing it is their only option.

Gross said the ready availability of guns from across state lines, despite Massachusetts' strict laws, worsens the ongoing conflicts.

"The cold hard facts is there are too many guns on the streets," he said.

Non fatal shootings are down to 91 from 131 from this time last year, Gross said, and this 34th homicide of the year is one more than last year.

"It has dramatically improved, but I think so much of it is retaliatory," Holmes said. "The street wants to solve problem in the street, so when people don't come forward, it's because they want to resolve the issue on their own. It is a full cycle of more crime [that] is retaliation for the first one."

No arrests have yet been made in Tuesday morning's shooting. Anyone with information is strongly urged to contact Boston Police Homicide Detectives at (617) 343-4470.