Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez (MyFoxBoston.com)
A man who survived a 2012 shooting in Boston that killed two people has claimed that then-New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was the man who pulled the trigger.
The man, who asked that his identity be kept secret out of concern for his safety, made the claim in an interview with WFXT television in Boston, and said he recognized Hernandez as the man who fatally shot two of his friends in July 2012 after the former NFL star was arrested this past June for the murder of Odin Lloyd.
The man claimed that the shooting occurred shortly after 2 a.m., the time when the Boston nightclub where they'd spent most of the evening closed its doors. The men were waiting at a red light when an SUV pulled up alongside them and a voice shouted "What's up, Negroes?" before the shooting began.
"Things happened so fast. I was trying to defend myself," the witness said in the interview. "They were shooting everywhere inside the car, front to back. They just came to kill. That's it."
The driver of the car the men were in, Danny Abreu, was killed, as was a passenger, Safiro Furtado. Both men were Cape Verdean immigrants, as is the witness.
"When I see (Hernandez's) face, I just recognize his face. Compare his face that night to his face now. It's that face that I remember," he said.
The word of the witness is not the only evidence police have that Hernandez was involved in the shooting, which occurred just months after he caught one of two touchdown passes thrown by Tom Brady in New England's 21-17 Super Bowl 46 loss to the New York Giants. Investigators believe Hernandez was at the same nightclub where the victims were the night of the shooting. MyFoxBoston.com reports that surveillance footage shows Hernandez in the same area as the victims.
Also, court documents show investigators found a silver SUV with Rhode Island license plates wanted in connection with the Boston shooting during a June search of a Bristol, Conn. house frequented by Hernandez's relatives and friends. According to the documents, the vehicle was rented in Hernandez's name.
A gun believed to be used in the 2012 murders was found in June of this year in the trunk of a car driven by Jailene Diaz Ramos that crashed. Diaz Ramos is also from Bristol, Hernandez's hometown.
MyFoxBoston.com also reports that investigators believe Hernandez's former right-hand man, Alexander Bradley, may have been in the car with Hernandez the night of the Boston murders.
Bradley is currently suing Hernandez, saying that the former football player shot him in the face after a night at a Florida strip club this past February.
Bradley was supposed to testify last month before the Suffolk County grand jury investigating the Boston murders, but did not appear. A warrant is currently out for his arrest.
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