Shooting victim had wanted out of New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD -- Suzanna M. Soares was getting out of this city.

Disillusioned by the rising crime in her neighborhood and anxious to move closer to a sister in Atlanta, the 30-year-old mother put her house on South Sixth Street up for sale and planned to leave next month, according to friends.

But the violence she sought to escape caught up with her early Tuesday morning when two men stormed into her house, where her young children slept, demanded money, and shot her to death, police said. The children, ages 1, 8, and 10, were not injured.

''They wanted to leave this crazy city," said Lavell Affonseca, 31, one of the victim's childhood friends.

Her death followed last month's wounding of a 3-year-old girl, the daughter of Soares's former boyfriend Mark Verdejo, 29. Verdejo, the father of one of Soares's children, was shot in September 2004. Both Verdejo and his daughter survived the shootings. Police said they do not know if the three shootings are connected.

Yesterday, police roped off the modest white house where a blue For Sale sign sat on the porch and said they were trying to determine what led to the slaying, the 18th unsolved homicide in New Bedford since 2001. Also yesterday, community leaders, victims' relatives, and officials from the police department, mayor's office, and Bristol district attorney's office released the dates of all 18 slayings at a news conference at police headquarters. They pleaded with witnesses to come forward and break the ''code of silence" they say has made it difficult for investigators to find and convict the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, Soares's family and friends grappled with the death of a woman they said struck people she met with her beauty and kind demeanor.

''None of us are angels, but she was the closest thing to one," Affonseca said. He hung a white towel with the message ''We love you Suesie. R.I.P." written on it on a fence near her house yesterday.

''I just can't see anything like this happening to her," he said.

Police said they responded to a 911 call about shots being fired in the neighborhood at about 3:47 a.m. on Tuesday. When they arrived at the house, they found Soares lying on the bed. Her boyfriend, John Sylvia, a laborer, was in the apartment at the time, said his lawyer Robert M. Xifaras.

The gunmen, who were wearing masks, pointed the gun at Sylvia and fired, but somehow he was not injured, Xifaras said. Then they turned the gun on Soares.

''It's horrible," Xifaras said. ''In cold blood."

Lieutenant Richard M. Spirlet at the New Bedford Police Department said the investigation is focusing on ''everyone."

''We haven't ruled anyone out," he said. Sylvia has not been charged in connection with the murder, Xifaras said.

''He's grieving very badly," he said.

In recent years, police have been fighting to break the silence that has followed many slayings in New Bedford, a city of about 94,000 people 60 miles south of Boston, known for its comely waterfront and Portuguese restaurants.

At yesterday's press conference, which was arranged weeks before Soares's death, police displayed brightly colored T-shirts with phrases like ''Speak up, Speak out" and ''Keep it real, Talk about it."

The idea came from Phyllis Lopes, the grandmother of Cecil Lopes III, who was shot on Chancery and Kempton streets last October. They are supposed to counter the ''Don't snitch" shirts that some residents have been wearing in the last month and which have been sold at local shops, said the Rev. David Lima, pastor at New Seasons Worship Center and a member of New Bedford ACTS, a volunteer group that formed last November to identify solutions to violence in the city.

Since then, community groups have engaged in a gun exchange program, trading firearms for gift certificates to Domino's Pizza. Now, community leaders will push hard to pass legislation that would set aside at least $750,000 to start a witness protection program in the state.

''I think that's one of the biggest frustrations," Lima said of witness silence. ''Last year, a young lady was put in jail for a month or two, held in contempt, because she wouldn't talk . . . because of the fear she was experiencing."

Soares worked multiple jobs to take care of her children, selling life insurance and working at a makeup counter at Filene's, said Johna Veale, her friend and owner of Johna's Hair Salon on Kempton Street.

She turned heads in every room she entered, said Erica Lopes, community coordinator at New Bedford ACTS, who attended yesterday's press conference.

''She stood out," Lopes said, as she left police headquarters. ''She is one of the most beautiful women in this city."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.