Police hurt as stakeout erupts in gunfire

June 15, 2007

DANVERS

A hail of gunfire from police sent shoppers at a Lowe's Home Improvement store ducking for cover as they exited the building just before 7:30 p.m. yesterday when a drug suspect tried to run down two detectives, police and witnesses said. Danvers and Peabody police were conducting drug surveillance in the store's parking lot when they tried to arrest Todd A. Scioli, 35, of Middleton, police said. Scioli fled police in a sport utility vehicle and allegedly dragged the detectives a short distance before they opened fire and fired nearly a dozen shots at the car, police and witnesses said. Scioli then reversed through the parking lot, hitting a stop sign and rolling over median strips, before police caught up to him and arrested him. Only vehicles were hit by the gunfire, and the two detectives were taken to Beverly Hospital for minor injuries. Scioli will be arraigned today in Salem District Court on charges including two counts of attempted murder, police said.

CAMBRIDGE

A Medford man was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after a Middlesex Superior Court jury found him guilty of the 2005 shooting death of Izaah Tucker, 22, authorities said. Dwight Williams, 21, arranged to meet Tucker, also from Medford, after a friend's birthday party on Sept. 30. About 1 a.m., Medford police responded to a call for shots fired and found Tucker's body behind a house on Lightguard Drive with a gunshot wound to the chest. An investigation found that Williams had fired the fatal shot, as well as four to five others at another person who was not hit. Williams was arrested in Boston within three weeks of the incident.

BOSTON

A Suffolk Superior Court judge declared a mistrial yesterday in the murder trial of Jason Meeks as a jury remained deadlocked after five days of deliberation. Meeks, 26, is accused of killing Alvaro Sanders in a November 2001 shooting at a Roxbury auto repair shop. The mechanic doing the work was also shot in the leg, but survived. "We have every intention of retrying this defendant at the earliest opportunity," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. Meeks will be held without bail on the murder charge and other unrelated charges, Conley said.

A Dorchester man who persuaded a 12-year-old girl to take and send nude pictures of herself through a cellphone he gave her was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison. According to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, Kenneth Hall, 46, met the girl in his neighborhood in 2003 while he was walking his pregnant dog, invited the girl to visit the puppies, and began spending time with her at his apartment. After a trial last June, a jury found Hall guilty of posing a child in a state of nudity, possession of child pornography, and child enticement.

The brother of a 23-year-old man fatally shot in the South End on Sunday reported being beaten early Wednesday, police said. The man told officers he was visiting the makeshift memorial for his brother, Angel Ortiz, on East Brookline Street when he was jumped by four people who "hit him with a blunt object."

SALEM

The Salem Housing Authority has agreed to a nearly $235,000 settlement to resolve allegations that it failed to notify public housing tenants about lead paint risks before they moved into apartments, the US Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. The housing agency must cover the $209,000 cost of a project to train public housing officials statewide to comply with state and federal lead paint laws. The Salem agency must also pay a $25,000 cash penalty. (AP)

BRIDGEWATER

A 35-year-old Fall River woman was killed yesterday when she lost control of her sport utility vehicle on Route 24 and overturned onto the median, State Police said. Police said the Toyota Sequoia driven by Ayanna N. Ruffin struck a concrete barrier about 7:30 a.m. and landed in the northbound lanes of Route 24. Ruffin was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton and later pronounced dead. The accident shut down part of Route 24, along with the ramps onto the highway from Route 495 and Route 104, for approximately two hours. The cause of the accident is under investigation.