In Boston’s Back Bay, a sign of the times is all about the time in the sign.
The City of Boston recently reduced the time pedestrians can legally cross Berkeley Street at Boylston Street, and not everyone is in-step with the move.
“W…
Massachusetts
Karen Read case sets stage for Canton election
Just two weeks away from the high-profile murder trial against Karen Read, the case seems to be influencing municipal elections in Canton, Massachusetts.
In fact, the way the town has handled the murder case is part of the reason why two women decided to run against the two incumbents in the first place.
Rita Lombardi and Trish Boyden are challenging incumbents Mike Loughran and Tom Theodore, who did not respond to NBC10 Boston requests for comment, for the Canton Select Board.
“We plan to make history today,” said Lombardi. “This movement, which started with Karen Read, OK, for truth and transparency … it transcends politics.”
“There is a chasm that has never been in this town,” said Boyden. “It’s a mile long and 10 feet deep.”
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in January of 2022. Her lawyers say she’s being framed as part of a massive coverup — something prosecutors have denied.
The trial is set to begin April 16.
Some voters say the case is completely unrelated to local politics, but others say it shines a light on a lack of transparency in town.
“The way this election is going — it was for the wrong reasons. There’s a lot of anger,” Canton resident Joe Masciarelli said. “I don’t believe in the big conspiracy theory. There are just too many people that they are looking at here.”
“There’s a lot that went on that is covered up by people that have been here a long time,” said resident Eleanor Moles.
“I think she’s innocent. Things just don’t add up,” said Johanna Falk.
“I don’t really have a firm opinion on it right now,” resident Elizabeth Hedges said. “It’s he-said-she-said, so I’m curious how it’s going to unfold in the courtroom.”
Right whale mother and calf spotted in Cape Cod Bay
The first right whale calf of 2024 was spotted off Cape Cod this weekend.
The Center for Coastal Studies says they spotted the calf with her mother just north of Marshfield on Monday. The calf is estimated to be around 4 months old.
Scientists say the Cape Cod Bay is one of the largest feeding grounds for right whales during winter and early spring.
The mother was identified as a 36-year-old that researchers have named Legato. Researchers have spotted 123 right whales in the bay so far.
North Atlantic right whales are nearing extinction, according to NOAA Fisheries. As of early February, there were only about 360 left, with less than 70 reproductive females.
“We were just finishing a survey track line when we saw a right whale feeding less than a mile from the beach off North Marshfield. We flew over to document the animal and all cheered in excitement when a little calf popped up by its side! It’s always a relief to see right whale mothers arriving safely in Cape Cod Bay with their calves,” Ryan Schosberg, an aerial observer and researcher with the Center for Coastal Studies, said.
Brother arrested in Maine days after fatal shooting at Brockton home
A man who’d been at large in the deadly shooting of his older brother at a Brockton, Massachusetts, home on Easter Sunday has been arrested, police said Tuesday.
Jeremiah Abreu, 20, is believed to have fatally shot 27-year-old Sedrick Abreu in the chest, killing him, at a home on Hoover Avenue, the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office has previously said.
Brockton police confirmed Tuesday that Jeremiah Abreu, who’d been wanted on a murder charge, has been arrested.
Abreu was arrested in Lewiston, Maine, about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. The U.S. Marshals Service and Maine State Police took him into custody.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to his arrest or when he would face extradition back to Massachusetts.
Two other people — 24-year-old Sirick Amado, also a brother of Sedrick Abreu, and 26-year-old Antonio Dejesus — have also been arrested in the case.
The shooting happened at about 2:17 a.m. at a home on Hoover Avenue. When officers arrived, they found the older Abreu shot in the chest, prosecutors said. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The shooting isn’t believed to be a random act of violence, authorities have said.
Amado and Dejesus appeared in court Monday to face weapon and accessory to murder charges, where a judge ordered them held without bail until a dangerousness hearing Thursday.
Amado’s attorney asked for surveillance video to be made public — he said it would prove his client did not have a gun or hand one to the suspected shooter.
But prosecutors said surveillance video that investigators had reviewed showed Jeremiah Abreu, Amado and Dejesus waiting outside a home on Hoover Avenue and Amado handing his brother the gun. After shooting his brother, prosecutors said, Jeremiah Abreu handed the gun to Dejesus.
Friends said Sedrick Abreu had just returned home from celebrating his grandmother’s birthday on Saturday night.
“He was just there, all happy, and then hours later he’s gone,” Tiara Martin said. “It’s just a tragic, tragic loss.”
She said he was always happy and “literally amazing.”
Death of missing Weymouth woman being investigated as apparent homicide
The death of a Weymouth, Massachusetts, woman is being investigated as an apparent homicide after she was found dead in her home Monday, officials said.
Christine Ruth Mello, 56, had been reported missing before her body was found in her home on Lake Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office. Investigators think she may have been dead for “a number of days.”
The office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy Tuesday morning. The death is being investigated as an apparent homicide by Weymouth police and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
More details were not immediately available.
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School resource officer accidentally shoots gun in bathroom, Cambridge police say
A police officer accidentally fired a gun in a school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, authorities said Tuesday.
The officer, assigned as a school resource officer at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, “accidentally discharged their firearm while…
