Somerville man charged in slay at home
A 26-year-old Somerville man found by police in the middle of the street with a gun in his hand is being held without bail after being accused of killing a man who had been staying with him.
Edson Dos Santos Moreno was arraigned in Somerville District Court Thursday on charges of armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery by discharging a firearm, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon in the shooting death of Robert Favreau, 22.
As a woman cried quietly in the courtroom gallery, a not guilty plea was entered on Moreno’s behalf. Judge William Martin ordered him held, pending a hearing Tuesday to determine whether he is too dangerous to be released on bail.
Shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday, police went to an address on Ware Street after receiving 911 calls reporting that a man had shot someone there and still had a gun in his hand, Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Weisman said.
When Officers Christopher Collette and Stephen Johnson arrived at the scene, they found a man later identified as Moreno in the middle of the street, holding a “dark item” in his right hand, according to a police report.
“I just saw a cop in a bulletproof vest and a gun out, screaming as he ran down the street,” said one neighbor, who declined to give his name.
The officers approached Moreno with their guns drawn and told him to drop his gun, the police report said. When Johnson aimed his gun at the defendant and ordered him again to drop it, Moreno “crouched down and placed the item — a semi-automatic handgun, — on the ground,” the report said.
As officers put Moreno in handcuffs and took hold of his right arm, they noticed dried blood near his right wrist, according to the police report. A man was shouting at the officers that the victim was on the second floor of the home, the report said
Police then found Favreau on the floor, “unresponsive and bleeding,” with a wound on the right side of his lower back. Favreau was pronounced dead at the scene.
A witness told Johnson that she saw Moreno “intentionally shoot” the victim, police said. A woman told officers that earlier, around 2 p.m., she heard a “scuffle and a woman screaming “on the second floor. And before officers arrived, she heard a loud “pop and then heard screaming and running,” the report said.
Favreau had received a call from Moreno, who told him to come to the apartment to get his belongings, a witness told police.
Once they arrived at the apartment, the defendant confronted Favreau, and they argued, according to a police report.
When officers interviewed Moreno, he said that he and Favreau had come to a falling out over the victim living with him, a police report said.
According to police, Moreno told officers, “I shot him.”