Deadly Silence

Killers live among us. They may be standing next to you at the convenience store, in the car behind you at the red light, walking by in the mall. They are free, allowed to kill again, because people who can put them behind bars refuse to talk with authorities, hiding behind a suffocating “code of silence.” A yearlong investigation by The Enterprise found that when killers are free, even when they aren’t pulling a trigger, they’re still stealing lives.

PART 2
Brockton Police detectives George Almeida and Nazaire Paul work the city’s downtown streets. (Craig Murray/The Enterprise)

Fear factors

Suspects and friends confront crime witnesses in courthouses, scaring many of them silent

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
   As he waited to testify in a stabbing case just before Valentine’s Day last year, Ollie Jay Spears glanced at the man beside him on the courthouse bench.

VIDEO IN STORY

   It was the defendant.
   At the end of the day, Spears took the elevator from the fourth floor of Brockton District Court to the lobby.
   “Guess who’s riding down the elevator with me? The defendant,” he recalled later.READ THE REST OF THE STORY


Larissa Rodrigues, girlfriend of shooting victim Shaian Colon, poses with daughter Shaian in her mother’s Brockton home. (Craig Murray/The Enterprise)

Silent streets: Part 2

The search for a killer; a family's search for justice

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
   Detective George Almeida was in full investigative mode as he checked the scene on Green Street for evidence and tried to find witnesses.

VIDEO IN STORY

   He and two other detectives — Nazaire Paul and Samuel Carde — had rushed to the neighborhood minutes earlier when a call came in for shots fired. It was about 1 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2006.
   Two people in a van were critically wounded and emergency rescue workers were trying to save them. READ THE REST OF THE STORY