Officer suspected of aiding getaway
A Boston police officer faces allegations that he rode away with his cousin in a getaway car from a Randolph nightclub, just after the cousin allegedly shot and killed a man, according to three Boston police officers with knowledge of the investigation.
A department spokesman confirmed yesterday that an officer was suspended with pay Monday, pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation. He had no further comment.
Carlos DePina, the chief suspect in Sunday's shooting outside the Copa Grande Oasis nightclub in Randolph, is the officer's relative, the three officers with knowledge of the investigation said. DePina, a 25-year-old Dorchester man, remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous, according to Norfolk County authorities, who said they are seeking to question him in connection with the shooting death of Joseph Lopes, 23, of Dorchester.
The suspended officer, 26, who joined the Boston Police Department three years ago, was seen leaving the scene in his car with DePina, the three officers said. They said he did not contact authorities about the shooting. It was not clear whether he was the driver or the passenger.
The suspended officer, who works in District C-11 in Dorchester, has been stripped of his badge and gun. "They went and grabbed his equipment the other night," said one of the sources.
No one answered the door yesterday at the officer's Roxbury home, and his lawyer, Thomas Drechsler, declined comment.
The shooting happened shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, as hundreds of people spilled into the street after celebrating at the club's weekly Cape Verdean night, said David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating.
Lopes left the club through a side door, Traub said. He was 40 to 50 feet from the door in the parking area when he was shot six to nine times.
Lopes was pronounced dead at Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, Traub said. Traub said Randolph police were at the scene quickly and immediately began interviewing witnesses to the killing.
By Monday, Keating's office had issued a bulletin asking the public for help finding DePina.
Traub said police were able to gather many accounts of what happened and how the alleged killer fled the scene.
Investigators, aided by eyewitness accounts, soon realized that a Boston officer's car had transported the shooter from the club, the three Boston officers with knowledge of the investigation said. investigators then notified Boston Police Internal Affairs.
One Boston police officer with knowledge of the probe said Carlos DePina's brother, Nathaniel, was killed by a masked gunman as he left a Dorchester barbecue in the summer of 2003. Many in the Cape Verdean community believed that Lopes was responsible for that killing, the officer said, suggesting a possible motive for Sunday's killing, revenge.
Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.
