Peter Carvalho followed his “best friend” down a path in Uphams Corner on Wednesday afternoon, raised his gun, and started shooting at him, according to prosecutors. Then he ran away, prosecutors said, only to be found by police minutes later leaning over his fallen friend.
Carvalho, 25, of Dorchester, was ordered held without bail Thursday after pleading not guilty in Roxbury District Court to murder.
The mother of the victim, Shannon Richardson, wept in the courtroom. “I want to hear my son’s voice! They took my Shannon!” she wailed after she left the court, too distraught to speak with reporters. “It’s not right!”
Assistant District Attorney Tara Burdman said in court that witnesses saw Richardson walking down a pathway from Humphreys Street toward Dudley Street about 1:25 p.m., looking over his shoulder at two men following him.
One of the men, described by witnesses as having shoulder-length dreadlocks and wearing a half-buttoned blue shirt with a white T-shirt visible underneath, pointed his gun at Richardson and fired several times before fleeing with the other man in the opposite direction.
Richardson made it into a store on Dudley Street, where he collapsed.
The witness then saw both men return down the path, Burdman said, but this time, the man with the dreadlocks was wearing just a white T-shirt and had a blue shirt draped over his arm.
Two Boston gang unit officers who were driving in the area saw the two men jogging out of the path and identified them as Carvalho and another man. The officers saw Carvalho grab his front waist area as he jogged down Dudley Street, Burdman said, then heard a call for shots fired in the area on their radio. They chased the two men and caught up to Carvalho inside the store leaning over Richardson, prosecutors said.
Richardson was rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he died of his wounds.
The man who was with Carvalho was not arrested, said a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office, though the investigation remains active.
WTF?
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Relatives and friends of both men mingled in an adjacent courtyard after the arraignment. Some insisted that Carvalho and Richardson were best friends who would never act violently toward each other, and questioned why Carvalho would shoot Richardson only to crouch over his body as police pursued him. Several said they believed both Carvalho and Richardson were running from a different person who was the shooter.
It's possible. Who are the cops protecting? An informant? An asset? A member of the elite?
Richardson’s uncle, Elias Monteiro, said it was too early for him to conclude Carvalho was not responsible for his nephew’s shooting, though he confirmed that the two were friends. He said he would wait to see what information is provided in court in the future.
“Truth outshines the dark,’’ said Monteiro....
Richardson, a Dorchester resident, is the city’s 23d homicide victim of the year; there were 16 at this time last year, police said.
I'm tired of the mixed messages (same day shooting) surrounding those fallen. Sorry.
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UPDATES: Man goes on trial for allegedly killing his best friend in Roxbury
"As jurors pronounced him not guilty of the charges against him, Carvalho blessed himself repeatedly. His sisters beamed and pumped their fists. Richardson’s mother, who sat in the front row, began weeping and had to be carried out of the courtroom by a male relative. Jurors looked startled as they heard her wails from outside the courtroom."
UPDATES: Man goes on trial for allegedly killing his best friend in Roxbury
"As jurors pronounced him not guilty of the charges against him, Carvalho blessed himself repeatedly. His sisters beamed and pumped their fists. Richardson’s mother, who sat in the front row, began weeping and had to be carried out of the courtroom by a male relative. Jurors looked startled as they heard her wails from outside the courtroom."
