BROKEN HEARTS AGAIN
SADNESS AND ANGER GRIP STATE AS OFFICER, CIVILIAN SLAIN
A somber procession of a black hearse escorted by dozens of police vehicles left South Shore Medical Center as slain Weymouth police officer Michael Chesna’s body was conveyed to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Boston hours after he was shot with his own gun.
It was a scene that has been repeated around the region in a few short months, with the killings of Yarmouth police Sgt. Sean Gannon and Maine Sheriff’s Deputy Eugene Cole. Yesterday, dozens of motorcycle cops from Quincy, Braintree, Sharon, Milford, Norfolk, Norwell and other communities scrambled to lead Chesna’s procession to Boston for his autopsy as residents ran to sidewalks to stand, hands folded, in silent reverence.
Chesna, who was just shy of six years with the department, was gunned down within walking distance of the hospital, but the proximity did not buy him time to survive his devastating injuries. Police said 20-yearold Emanuel Lopes, who has a history of run-ins with cops, attacked Chesna when confronted after a single-car crash, hitting him with a rock, taking his gun and firing several shots into the fallen officer’s head and chest.
Later yesterday, the body of a woman — hit in her home by a stray bullet that police say Lopes fired as he ran — was removed nearly nine hours after the shooting shattered yesterday morning’s calm in the quiet neighborhood.
A black hearse bearing the seal of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was seen pulling out of the driveway of the tidy house on Torrey Street shortly before 4 p.m., after plainclothes investigators had carried multiple paper bags of evidence from the property.
“It’s just shocking,” said neighbor Chase Gile, who said the victim was known around the neighborhood as a kind, older woman.
“She was a really nice person,” Gile said.
The identity of the civilian victim was not immediately released by the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office pending notification of her family.