A man who saw his friend crushed to death in the Merrimack Valley gas explosions and a 16-year-old girl in serious conditions after a gunshot wound to her head are among the alleged victims of a Lawrence man facing attempted murder charges.
At the request of assistant Essex District Attorney Christina Ronan, Lawrence District Court Judge Michael Brooks impounded the arrest-warrant affidavit that led to Wednesday night’s capture in Dorchester of suspected gunman Jose L. Rivera, 36, by police and U.S. Marshals.
The state’s motion to impound cites the ongoing investigation into Friday night’s gunplay on High Street and the fact that “co-conspirators are still at large.”
The victims are identified in court papers released Thursday as Geylin Pichardo, the teenage girl prosecutors said in their motion “suffered a gunshot wound to the head;” Christian “El Gigo” Figueroa; and Miguel Rivera.
Lawrence police Det. Thomas M. Cuddy said in a department statement Saturday the gunfire, which apparently only hit Pichardo, erupted as a large group was “fighting” on High Street. Rivera’s address is listed as High Street in court papers.
The teen, Cuddy said, was a passenger in a black BMW that fled the scene and was later driven to Lawrence General Hospital by Figueroa. Figueroa was arrested at the hospital on firearm charges stemming from a New Year’s Day incident on Exchange Street. Figueroa is being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing Wednesday in Lawrence District Court.
According to Cuddy, “One of the occupants of the BMW exited the vehicle and shot several rounds in the air” while the vehicle was on High Street. The detective added, “Officers were able to locate a firearm that was thrown from the BMW en route to the hospital.”
Pichardo was hit as the BMW was taking off and an individual ran out of a house on High Street and “shot several rounds into the car,” Cuddy said.
Lawrence police reports from the Jan. 1 shots-fired incident for which Figueroa was arrested identify him as a known member of the Trinitarios gang, whose family’s “house blew up in the Columbia Gas explosion in September.”
Figueroa was seated in an SUV at his home on Chickering Road in Lawrence on Sept. 13 with his pal Leonel Rondon, 18, when the explosions began across Merrimack Valley and a brick chimney collapsed on the vehicle, crushing Rondon to death.
Figueroa’s defense attorney Socrates De La Cruz could not be reached for comment Thursday. He is also representing his client’s family in their civil suit against Columbia Gas.
Brooks allowed Rivera to hide behind a wooden door for his arraignment. Pleas of not guilty to three counts of armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and illegal possession of a firearm were entered on his behalf. He was ordered to return to court March 8 for a probable-cause hearing.
Rivera’s family and attorney Scott Gleason later ran from reporters outside the courthouse, with only Gleason commenting over his shoulder, “There’s a lot more to this story than is being told.”
