Two dead, two hurt in Malden shootings
Cheryl Saunders awoke to the sound of gunshots this morning and then rushed outside her Salem Street home where she encountered a scene of horror.
On the sidewalk in front of her house, Saunders said, she saw two men with obvious gunshot wounds to their chests lying next to each other in pools of blood that grew larger with each moment.
"I don’t wish death on anybody,'' a shaken Saunders said today. "To see these guys out there in pools of their own blood, it's just horrible.''
The office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. identified the victims as Virgilio Dipre, 19, of Boston, who was pronounced dead at Whidden Hospital in Everett; Lakeem Tombs, 18, of Boston, who remains on life support at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Jerry Borque, 25, of Malden, who remains in critical condition at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Adding to Saunders's emotional trauma was the discovery just a few moments later of a third man lying in the backyard of the two-family home, a man Saunders identified as an upstairs neighbor.
Saunders said she has never had problems with her neighbors, nor have police been called to the second floor of the two-family during the 15 years she has lived in the house.
According to Malden Mayor Richard C. Howard, the violence involved a Malden man licensed to carry a firearm who got into a gunfight with two men from Boston.
In a telephone interview, Howard said the Boston men showed up outside a residence in the 200 block of Salem Street sometime between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. The Boston men had not been invited to the home, and their arrival led to the sudden outbreak of violence, the mayor said.
Multiple shots were exchanged.
"It looks like that it was some kind of either self-defense [by the gun owner] or an attempt to kind of clear the situation up,'' Howard said. "As of right now, it's an exchange of gunfire in response to the two visitors showing up in kind of an unexpected manner.''
Howard said police recovered drugs at the scene, but he added that it was not yet clear what role drugs played, if any, in the gunfight. But he added, "We know it was not some kind of random event. These people were there for some specific reason.''
Howard said police do not believe there is a connection between this morning's violence and the shooting death of a Stoneham man early Sunday morning in Malden. That shooting took place near the intersections of Eastern Avenue and Wyeth Street.
Cory Disciscio, 21, of Stoneham, was shot to death after an argument, police said. No arrests have been made, officials said today.
Joe Hyde, who said he is Discisco's uncle, said he and a handful of Disciscio’s other family members all work at Malden Transportation Inc. The taxi company is headquartered steps from where police reportedly found Disciscio suffering from gunshot wounds, and where friends and relatives have erected a makeshift memorial at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Wyeth Street.
“He was a super kid,” said Hyde. “There is a lot of love here, a lot of love for a kid that it didn’t mean to happen to. We’re here for his life.”
Pictures, flowers, and cards bearing messages to the family were posted Tuesday morning. Prayer candles were lit next to photos from a camping trip Disciscio attended with friends. A Malden Transportation uniform, hung around a brick column, had been scrawled with messages.
Hyde said Disciscio was on his way to living independently and growing up when his life was cut short. Disciscio had moved into his first apartment about eight months ago and had bought a car and had begun to change from a “boy into a man,” Hyde said.
Town correspondent Matt Byrne contributed to this report.
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