Boston police, in bid to find alleged shooter, release cellphone video of Theater District slaying

By Globe Staff

Hoping to get tips that will help them capture a fugitive suspect, Boston police have released cellphone video of the altercation that ended in the death of US Army veteran Stephen Perez in April in Boston’s Theater District.

Peter Castillo, 23, of Salem, the alleged triggerman in the April 28 shooting, remains at large, the segment said, possibly in the Dominican Republican, possibly elsewhere in the Caribbean, or possibly in the United States.

The video, shot from above, shows the encounter on the street that ended in Perez being shot.

Police had previously released surveillance video of men running out of a parking garage. The TV show identifies those men as reinforcements being called to the scene of an initial fight to confront Perez. The men allegedly include Castillo, who is carrying a gun.

Around 2 a.m. on April 28, police responded to a 911 call reporting that a man had been shot at 290 Tremont St., near Eliot Norton Park in the Tufts Medical Center area. Officers found the 22-year-old Perez outside suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was transported to Tufts Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

On June 7, authorities identified Castillo as a suspect in the homicide after obtaining a warrant charging him with murder. He was indicted by a Suffolk grand jury in late June. Two of Castillo’s alleged associates are also facing charges of perjury and misleading a police investigator.

Perez served in the Army as a sniper during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to his friends and family.