On hearing the noise of a fight, Samuel Atwood came up to see what was the matter, and entering the alley heard the latter part of the combat. When the boys who had been fighting had left he met the ten or twelve soldiers who had been fighting with the boys rushing down the alley toward the square. He asked them if they intended to murder people? They answered "Yes, we do," and then hit Atwood, hurting him.
Immediately after, those British officers appeared in the square, asking "where were the cowards?" One of them advanced toward a youth who had a wooden plank in his hand. But the young man, seeing a person near him with a drawn sword, held up his wooden plank in defiance, and they quietly passed by him, going up the little alley to King Street, where they attacked single and unarmed people until the crowds began shouting loudly.
Thirty or forty people, mostly young boys, began gathering in King Street. The British Captain Preston, with a group of soldiers with bayonets, came from the main guard to the Commissioner's House. The soldiers were pushing with their bayonets, crying, "Make way!" They took place by the Custom House, and continuing to drive the people off, and even pricked some people in several places. The people started shouting and, it is said, threw snowballs.
On this, the Captain commanded them to fire, and more snowballs were thrown. He again said, “Fire, be the consequences what it will!" One soldier then fired, and a townsman with a club struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his gun. Rushing forward, the man aimed a blow at the Captain's head, which grazed his hat and landed heavily on his arm. However, the soldiers continued to fire, successively, till seven or eight or, as some say, eleven guns were discharged.
By this fatal movement, three men were laid dead on the spot, and two more struggling for life.