Family of Springfield homicide victim Antonio Gonzales trying to raise money for funeral

The family of Springfield's latest homicide victim needs to raise $7,000 for a funeral. As of Monday afternoon, they had only raised about $2,200.

This is an update of a story that was posted at 2:48 p.m. Monday

SPRINGFIELD - Just down Bay Street from where he was shot to death early Saturday members of Antonio “Tony” Gonzales spent Monday trying to raise the $7,000 needed for a proper funeral.

“A penny, a quarter, a nickel, anything!” Maddlyn Miranda shouted as vehicles whizzed by the scene outside 305 Bay St. She carried a sign that stated in part, “RIP Tony - Please help us in this time of need.”

A few feet away from the temporary street shrine of flowers and candles set up for Gonzales, family members set up a table from which they were selling bottles of water and food.

Gonzales’s sister, Merari Gonzales said that since Saturday morning, they have managed to cobble together just over $2,200 in donations, an impressive amount but well short of the $7,000 needed. As she spoke, a woman in a mini-van stopped in front and handed Merari Gonzales a few dollars that she placed in a large bucket by her feet.

The family has not set up a memorial bank account, a common practice, for accepting donations, she said. Instead, people who wish to donate can send money in her brother’s name directly to Henderson’s Funeral Home, 52 Hancock St., Springfield.

Gonzales, 39, was shot to death at about 2 a.m. as he attempted to intervene in a disturbance at the scene of a house party across the street.

Merari Gonzales said her brother heard gunshots and then went to see what was going on. He was hit twice, once in the shoulder and once in the chest.

The 16-year-old boy accused of shooting him, Joshua Pena, was arraigned as an adult in Springfield District Court on a charge of murder. He denied the charges and was ordered held without the right to bail.

Miranda and others who gathered at the scene where Gonzales lost his life, spoke highly of the man and described him as a generous soul who served as the neighborhood peacekeeper.

“He was about his kids, about his wife, about his dog, he didn’t bother anybody,” Miranda
said. “He lost his life trying to help somebody.”

Merari Gonzales the family is in shock over his death.

“We miss him so much,” she said.

“He was a good father, a good son, a good godfather, a good friend,” she said. “He was good in everything.”

He was married for two years and was raising his wife’s children as his own, she said.

The two children, ages 5 and 3, have not yet been told that he is dead, she said.

She said her brother was very friendly and generous with everyone. He also had a knack for making people laugh, no matter how sad or angry they were feeling.

“If you were angry, he would put a smile on your face because he had a way to make you smile,” she said.

“Everyone on the block loved him,” she said. “All the kids called him ‘Tio,’ which is Spanish for uncle.”

The last time she saw him was Saturday afternoon when he came to her apartment.

One of her children was being cranky, and Antonio set out to make him feel better, she said.

“He used to call my son Pikachu. He was kissing him and hugging him,” Merari Gonzales said. “He said ‘I’m going to bring you a lollipop, Pikachu,’ but he’s never coming back with the lollipop because he’s gone.”

Tristan Rivera, who said he had known Gonzales for several years said “He always looked out for everybody. I thought of him as an older brother. He was always talking to us, leading us to the right path.”

In a similar, but unrelated, incident that occurred about 90 minutes before Gonzales was shot, a 26-year-old city man told police that he had been shot in the leg at a youth party near
Eastern Avenue and Colton Street when he too attempted to intervene in an argument.

That suspect, a black male in a Yankee cap, pulled out gun and started shooting, Sgt. John
M. Delaney said.

That suspect, who had been in a heated argument with an unknown female, remains at large, he said.

Rivera said the suspects in such shootings seem to be getting younger all the time. “I think that if they have gun in their hands they think they are Superman,” he said.

“It’s hard to believe he went out like this,” said Gabriel Santiago, who said he grew up with Gonzales at Putnam Circle.

“Kids are young today,” said neighborhood resident Millie Acevedo. “They don’t want to think with their brains, they think with their guns.”

Acevedo knows firsthand the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence.

Her late son. Johnny F. Acevedo, 17, of Springfield, was fatally shot in the chest near Danny’s Place, a bar in Holyoke in 1998.

“I know the pain, it hurts, it hurts,” Acevedo said, adding that she knew Gonzales and the 16-year-old who allegedly took his life.

Acevedo and others at the scene said the two did not know each other, that the shooting was a random.

Republican reporter George Graham contributed to this report.