A teenager was shot and killed for knocking on the wrong door
A 15-year-old Massachusetts resident was murdered on Saturday afternoon after knocking on the wrong door.
Dylan Francisco and his friend were allegedly drinking in Chicopee, Massachusetts when they went looking for a friend, reports The Boston Globe.
Francisco banged on the door of the house at 120 Boucher Circle he thought was his friend's. As it turns out, it was the home of Jeffrey Lovell, a 42-year-old man.
When Lovell saw Francisco banging on the door, he yelled for Francisco to, "get the [expletive] out," per The Boston Globe.
But when a pane of glass shattered, Lovell fired his weapon through the door, striking the teen in the abdomen, according to a statement posted on the Chicopee Police Department's Facebook page.
The police responded to a call of breaking-and-entering at 12:56 p.m., and found the teen outside the house. They immediately brought him to a hospital, but he died later that same day, according to MassLive.
Lovell has posted pictures of himself holding guns, and wrote in support of the Second Amendment, notes MassLive.
Massachusetts does not provide the same protection for homeowners as other states, according to The Washington Post. According to Massachusetts state law, killing someone who is "unlawfully in a dwelling," is only justified if the occupant, in this case, Lovell, acted with "reasonable belief" that the intruder was about to inflict "great bodily harm or death."
Lovell was arrested at his home and held without bail, the Chicopee Police Department said in a statement. He was arraigned on Monday morning. A grand jury will decide if he will be charged with murder or a lesser offense.
The shooting shattered the calm in what is usually a quiet neighborhood.
"We have never seen anything like this," Richard Sawyer, a local resident told MassLive.
"It is hard to believe that in such a quiet area of the city this happened," Michael Spillane told The Boston Globe. "I thought some kids just got into a fight. But a murder? A homicide?"
Friends remember Francisco as a "good kid," who was "known to joke around," per The Globe.
"He didn't deserve to die," Anthony Cruz, a friend, told The Globe.
"This was a tragic and avoidable incident that resulted in a young man losing his life," Hampden County District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni said in a statement on Facebook.