The 16-year-old suspect was arrested shortly after the murder.
This is an update to stories posted at 12:53 p.m. and at 9:33 a.m.
The area along Bay Sreet where a shooting took place early Saturday morning, claiming the life of Marion Street resident Antonio Gonzales. SPRINGFIELD – A 38-year-old city man lost his life on Bay Street early Saturday morning to a teenage gunman as he attempted to intervene in a disturbance that spilled out on the roadway from a birthday party.
“Investigators determined that there was some type of ‘birthday party’ involving juveniles taking place on Bay Street and the 16-year-old suspect came over looking to start trouble and was armed. No calls came into the police department to assist in breaking up a party,” Sgt. John M. Delaney, executive aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said in a statement.
He said the victim – Antonio Gonzales of Marion Street – was shot in the chest.
“Gonzales attempted to intervene and was shot. At this time there does not seem to be any other motive,” Delaney said.
The 16-year-old shooter, whose identity is not being released, was apprehended near his home on Wilbraham Road. Delaney said officers on the scene found out who the shooter was, and headed to the area of his home, where they set up surveillance.
The officers - Chris Goodrow, Thomas Hervieux, Scott Richard and Michael Dyer - saw a cab pull up behind a home directly behind the suspect’s house, and saw the suspect come off the porch and attempt to get inside it, Delaney said. Officers arrested him, and recovered the firearm used in the murder from the front porch.
“Less than one hour and fifteen minutes after the murder, the Springfield Police Department had their suspect in custody and the firearm was recovered and taken off the streets. This is outstanding police work,” Delaney said.
Delaney said the suspect is known to the police.
The victim did not have any criminal record, Delaney said.
The investigation is continuing, Delaney said.
Delaney said officers responded to the “shotspotter” activation in the area of Bay and Dartmouth streets just before 2 a.m. As they headed to the scene, several 911 calls came in from residents reporting that shots were being fired, Delaney said.
Officers were greeted by approximately 30 people in front of 305 Bay St. who told them that someone had just been shot. The officers attempted to perform CPR on Gonzalez and called for an ambulance, which took Gonzalez to Baystate Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m., Delaney said.
Neighbor Lila Acevedo, who lives next door to 305 Bay St., said there was a crowd of people in the street, spilling out from a nearby party., who were making a lot of noise. She said she saw her neighbor gunned down as he walked past the crowd.
“I heard a commotion and saw people fighting. I looked out and I saw my neighbor hit the floor,” Acevedo said.
“He was a dad, a husband, a great man. He was going to buy cigarettes. He was an awesome person and he was an innocent bystander,” Acevedo said.
She said she knew him only as “Tony,” but said he was pleasant and never bothered anyone. He often would be seen with his 3-year-old son, or walking his pitbull, she said. Acevedo said the man’s wife told her he had gone out to purchase cigarettes.
“This is really scary,” said Acevedo, who said she has only been living in her apartment for three months, and this happened.
Acevedo said she thinks the shooter was trying to hit more than one person. She saw him walking up and down the street with the gun in his hand.
Brenda Herrera, of 294 Bay St., said she is distraught over what happened. She had a birthday party for her 18-year-old daughter and tried to shut it down before 11 p.m., but said the kids started it up again. Herrera said the boy who was arrested told her inside the house that he wanted to kill someone.
She said he went outside and “started shooting everything.”
“I don’t want to do another party at my house again in my life,” Herrera said.
Herrera said she served only soda and juice. She said her daughter knew the shooter.
Another neighbor, Liz Wills-Ogilvie, who lives on Dartmouth Street, said she was asleep when the sound of fighting woke her up. The shooting happened around 2 a.m., according to media reports.
She called 911 about the noise. Right after she hung up she heard the gunshots.
“It was like the wild, wild west,” Wills-Ogilvie said.
Wills-Ogilvie said she grabbed her 3-year-old son and they went into the bathroom until she heard the shooting stop. She said people from the party were running all over the street, and some even ran into her yard. She estimates she heard at least 10 gunshots.
“It’s just so sad these young people don’t value their lives . . . It’s so disheartening. Guns are just out of control,” Wills-Ogilvie said. “If we want our city to change we’ve got to get a handle on it.”
This was the city’s first murder since Officer Kevin Ambrose was gunned down while answering a call for a domestic dispute in June. The man who killed Ambrose, Shawn Bryan of Hempstead, N.Y., died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest, police said.
The killing of Gonzales marks the seventh murder this year.
There were 19 murders in Springfield in 2011.