Man killed at skateboard shop on Main Street in Malden; police hunt for clues

By Lauren Dezenski, Jarrett Bencks, Peter Schworm and Martin Finucane, Globe Correspondents and Globe Staff

Police investigated a shooting outside Patriot Skateboards on Main Street in Malden.

MALDEN — A 39-year-old man was fatally shot today at a skateboard shop here on Main Street, law enforcement officials said.

Shawn Clark of Saugus was transported to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Middlesex district attorney and Malden police chief said in a statement. The state medical examiner’s office is to perform an autopsy.

State and local police are investigating the circumstances of the shooting, which was reported at 12:44 p.m. at 804 Main St. No one has yet been charged, the statement said.

A State Police spokesman said earlier today that suspects were at large and a K-9 search was underway.

A nearby shop owner said he saw two men running down a side street when he was driving up to Main Street.

When the shop owner turned the corner, he said, he saw a man he knew as Shawn, the owner of Patriot Skateboards, lying on the ground.

“One guy came out at the corner and he yelled at the guys running. That’s when I realized the guys shot him [Clark],” the shop owner said.

The neighborhood of shops and residences on Main Street is relatively close-knit, the shop owner said.

Though the neighborhood has had an occasional robbery, the shop owner has been in the neighborhood for the last 12 years and said it is relatively safe. He called the incident “too close for comfort.”

“I could never think something like this could ever happen,” he said in a telephone interview.

The street was blocked off and crime scene investigators placed numbered evidence markers in the street, John Nolan, manager of Anton’s Cleaners at 780 Main, said in a telephone interview. Nolan said he neither saw nor heard the incident.

At about 1:45 p.m. police could be seen investigating inside the skateboard shop. One side of the street in the area is a commercial strip with shops and apartments above, while the other side is residential.

The skateboard shop is flanked by an apartment rental agency and a barbershop. Four men standing outside the barbershop said they were friends of the victim; one said it was a “scary” incident.

Ken Ricci, owner of Ricci’s Liquor Mart at 834 Main, said, “I heard the gunshots. I thought it was a truck, and I saw the traffic, and I went outside and saw the ambulance and the cops.”

He said there were often youths gathered at the front of the shop, where there was a bench made of skateboards and “there’s always problems over there.”

Charles Amisial, a neighbor who lives in a home across the street, said he was outside cleaning his car when he heard the shtos and ran into his garage.

“I went into the garage right away. I didn’t know what was going to happen next,” he said.

The district attorney’s office said members of the public who have information they believe might be helpful can contact State Police at 781-897-6600 or Malden police at 781-397-7171.