Third suspect arrested in Beach Street shooting

Mehdi Bezzate, 35, was shot in front of his home at 35 Beach St. last Tuesday as he waited in his car to take his brother to dinner. He sustained injuries to his left shoulder and abdomen and was admitted to Mass. General Hospital that night. No information on his condition has been released.

Similar charges in the matter against Francis Enwonwu, 27, of Malden, and Bernard Gadson, 19, a longtime Malden resident who recently moved to Everett, are still pending. They pleaded not guilty to several charges last week - including armed assault with intent to murder - and were ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing, also scheduled for Wednesday.

An unnamed informant told Malden Police on Friday afternoon that Nguyen admitted to shooting Bezzate with a chrome .357-caliber revolver, according to the police report. Nguyen was later arrested outside Panera Bread in Everett, on a tip from the same informant.

The informant told police that Nguyen, Enwonwu, and Gadson had been watching Bezzate before Tuesday's shooting. They decided to rob him when they learned that he came home every night with cellphones, the informant said. Bezzate owns a cellphone store on Salem Street.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Keeley said last week that authorities believed Gadson had fired the shots, while Enwonwu tried to open the passenger side door of Bezzate's car. Police arrested them last week at a house in Everett and found no weapons while executing a search warrant on the property. Several witnesses have implicated the pair in the shooting, Keeley said, adding that authorities are withholding the names of witnesses to protect their personal safety.

Bezzate's assailants fled the scene in a stolen SUV, later traced to a Budget Car Rental lot at Logan Airport. Marcus Lamb, 18, of Malden, and Derek Matthews, 23, of Revere, pleaded not guilty last week to one count each of receiving a stolen vehicle. Police arrested them in Malden at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday as they entered the SUV, after the Budget staff had activated technology to disable the vehicle. Both men are due back in court on Sept. 22.

The Beach Street incident came on the heels of an Aug. 16 shooting near the 7-Eleven on Salem Street, when a 20-year-old Everett man suffered a leg wound. In addition, police fatally shot a 20-year-old East Sandwich man on Salem Street on Aug. 3, after he rammed into three officers with a stolen vehicle, according to police.

Officers pledged to step up patrols in the impacted areas at a crime prevention meeting last Wednesday night at Salemwood Elementary School.