Cops: Man in car shot several times

A Medford man with a long arrest history was shot in the leg Thursday night as he sat in his car outside his house, Suffolk police said Friday.

Anthony Dawson, 29, who has been accused of gun crimes and survived being shot in the face a decade ago, was at the wheel of a Volkswagen with another man when two people approached on foot, said Det. Sgt. Edward Aki of the Sixth Squad.

"They may have asked them to get out of the car, but then, they just started firing," Aki said.

Dawson was hit multiple times in the leg but is expected to survive. He remained hospitalized on Friday.

The assailants, who wore hooded sweatshirts, ran away after the shooting, police said.

In April 2001, Dawson was hit in the face with a shotgun blast in Gordon Heights and lost the use of one eye, police said. The circumstances of that attack were not clear Friday.

In July 2005, Dawson shot at a man sitting in a car during a robbery in Medford, officials said then. In September of that year, Dawson shot at another man seven times, striking him in the throat.

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Several days later, Dawson opened fire on police and fled as they tried to arrest him on charges of attempted murder. None were wounded.

Dawson escaped, but was arrested several days later in Middle Island. A representative of the Suffolk County district attorney's office said Friday there were multiple indictments stemming from those incidents and the final disposition of the cases were not clear.

Dawson was convicted of a felony drug sale charge in 2006 and started a prison term that year. He was released on parole in September, according to the state Department of Correction. He has been arrested repeatedly over the last 12 years and convicted of assault, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, and other charges.

Dawson was affiliated with a street gang in 2003, Aki said.

As a teenager in April 1999, Dawson was in a car holding his girlfriend's 11-month-old baby when undercover officers approached to arrest him on several felony warrants -- he'd repeatedly alluded officers, officials said -- and for violating an order of protection related to the child's mother.

Dawson then ran away with the baby girl in his arms and threw the child into the air and she landed on the sidewalk, police said. He was caught and charged with reckless endangerment and assault. The 11-month-old girl was hospitalized, but not seriously injured. Dawson was later convicted and sentenced to a year in prison, according to court records.