DA: Man charged in shooting that paralyzed his friend falsely accused another man of the crime

A Woburn man was arraigned on Friday on charges of shooting his 19-year-old friend, paralyzing him, and then trying to frame someone else for the crime, authorities said.

Alex Braz, 22, was indicted on Thursday on charges of intimidation of a witness, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, assault and battery with a firearm, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling and five counts of improper storage of a firearm, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said.

Braz was arraigned on Friday in Middlesex Superior Court and ordered released after posting $7,500 cash bail. He is due back in court July 22.

“The defendant in this case allegedly shot and permanently injured his friend,” Ryan said. “He then went on to allegedly create a serious public safety risk by misleading police into believing that an armed home invasion had occurred. These actions put an innocent man at risk and created a very dangerous situation. He allegedly attempted to frame a man who was not involved in this incident.”

At approximately 2:30 p.m. on June 12, Woburn police responded to a Winchester Hospital report of a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck, the DA said. The victim had been brought into the hospital by Braz and another man who was with him at the time of the shooting, she said.

Braz told police that the person responsible for the shooting was a Black man he knew from Woburn, Ryan said. He provided that person’s name and a specific description of his clothing, she said.

Braz told Woburn police that the man had entered his house and gone up to the Braz’s third-floor bedroom, where he shot the victim, the DA said.  Another person at the scene corroborated the story, she said.

Police were dispatched to the home of the person Braz named and set up a perimeter to try to locate the man, Ryan said. The cops found him and spoke to him, and they quickly sussed out that he wasn’t involved, she said.

Detectives began conducting further interviews and collecting and analyzing evidence, including video surveillance, and figured out that Braz was the person responsible for shooting his friend — and instructing another person who was with them to back up his version of what happened, the DA said.

The police investigation revealed that Braz, the victim and the other man were together inside a Mount Pleasant Street home, where the defendant, who had recently received his license to carry, was showing them a gun, Ryan said. She said Braz fired the gun, shooting his friend. Braz also had several guns that were improperly stored and unlocked, she added.

The victim suffered “significant paralysis” and remains hospitalized, the DA said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3qAjAVt