The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
By Maria Papadopoulos, ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
BROCKTON -- Her close friend says Rosa Andrade moved to Arthur Paquin Way to start her life anew.
But those dreams were shattered Sunday afternoon when a man believed to be Andrade's estranged ex-boyfriend tracked down the single mother outside her apartment complex and shot her dead, then turned the gun on himself, on a street that witnesses said was teeming with children.
"He always used to say, 'I'm going to kill her one day and then I'm going to kill myself,'" Andrade's close friend, Eugenia Marques, cried as she crouched down on the sidewalk across from the crime scene Sunday.
Authorities would not identify the man who shot Andrade, the city's tenth homicide, Sunday night.
"She was shot in the head by a male who then shot himself. We are not releasing his name. It is unclear whether he will survive," said Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton.
The man shot himself in the head after shooting Andrade, said Middleton. He was taken to an area hospital and then transferred to a Boston hospital, she said.
His condition was not known Sunday night.
Police responded to Arthur Paquin Way after receiving 911 emergency calls for shots fired at 4:47 p.m. Sunday.
Authorities found Andrade, 39, and the man both shot and lying on pavement in a parking lot outside 337 Arthur Paquin Way, witnesses said.
Jay Wooden of Brockton was visiting friends in the housing complex when he heard neighbors' scream that someone had been shot.
"I ran outside and I saw the guy and the woman lying on the ground," said Wooden, 24.
Wooden said the man, who had shot himself in the mouth, was lying on the ground "breathing heavy" and bleeding profusely through his mouth and nose. The man was lying on a handgun, Wooden said.
Andrade was bleeding heavily from her throat area, he said.
"She wasn't breathing at all," Wooden said. "I was just standing there, hovering over him. The shells were on the ground."
Wooden then told neighborhood children to turn away.
"There was kids out there. We told the kids to go inside because the kids can't see stuff like that. There was blood gushing" everywhere, Wooden said.
"It was the most horrible scene I've ever seen in my life," said Veronica Paquin, daughter of the late Arthur Paquin, the founder of the city's Crime Watch program, for whom the street is named.
The shooting, which happened next door to Paquin's home, was the second fatal shooting on Arthur Paquin Way in three weeks.
Jose Gurley, 17, was shot dead outside 282 Arthur Paquin Way on July 21.
"It's very scary. Our kids hang around here and play in the basketball court," said Stephanie Sheely, 35, a mother of two, as she and other neighbors watched investigators collect evidence and clean blood off the pavement at Sunday's crime scene.
White towels saturated with blood and other items of clothing were on the ground near Andrade's small, green compact car, later towed from the scene.
"I don't feel safe anymore," said Vicki Garcia, 38, who lives on Arthur Paquin Way close to where Gurley was shot dead. "I don't know what to expect anymore."
Jandira Gomes was inside her Roosevelt Heights home when she heard several gunshots.
"They were really loud," Gomes said, holding an infant. "It's scary."
Andrade, who was Cape Verdean, moved into Roosevelt Heights, a city-owned affordable housing complex on the city's north side, with her toddler son a month ago, Marques said.
Andrade had taken out restraining orders against her ex-boyfriend, also the father of her child, she said.
"She was going to court, back and forth. She never told him that she lived in here. I guess he followed her," Marques, 35, said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"They kept breaking up and then get back together," Marques said, sobbing loudly as she hugged her three children. "I always used to tell her, 'He's threatened you. Leave him for good.'"
"He was very jealous of her. She didn't want anything to do with him anymore," Marques said. "But he kept coming."
Meanwhile, Paquin said her father would have been horrified had he lived to see the gun violence on his street.
Arthur Paquin waged a ferocious crusade against crime in the 1980s and 1990s, organizing neighborhood groups and facing down criminals on the street.
"This is right here," his daughter said, pointing to the crime scene from the Paquin walkway. "This is our home. My father would say, 'We've never seen this, never.'"
Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.
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