Two men watched as Peter Carvalho raised his gun, pointed it at his best friend, and fired six shots across a grassy Roxbury lot on the sunny afternoon of May 21, 2014, prosecutors say. Shannon Richardson turned to run but could not escape: He was fatally struck in the neck, back, thigh, and leg.
Two vehicles associated with a rival gang had been circling the neighborhood that afternoon, but the two eyewitnesses picked Carvalho out of a lineup as the shooter, Assistant District Attorney Tara Burdman in Suffolk Superior Court said Thursday during her opening statement at Carvalho’s trial for first-degree murder.
“At this point, ladies and gentlemen, you’re probably asking yourselves: ‘Why would Peter Carvalho shoot Shannon Richardson? You just told us they were friends,’ ” Burdman told the jury. “To understand the ‘why,’ we need to go back a little bit.”
Prosecutors have said that Carvalho, 26, was aiming at a rival — not at his friend — when he fired, and Burdman went on to outline for jurors a longstanding feud between the Wendover Street gang, to which Carvalho and Richardson belonged, and the Cape Verdean Outlaws, the group the two circling vehicles were linked to.
“Peter Carvalho was genuinely upset that Shannon Richardson was shot and died,” said Burdman. “But the evidence is going to tell you that Peter Carvalho is the person that shot Shannon Richardson in that vacant lot.”
But Carvalho’s attorney said her client was innocent.
“On that day, two cars are circling, and those cars have no business on that street,” said defense attorney Kelli Porges. “These two cars make their final and deadly pass. And within a moment, six shots ring out. And from those shots, Shannon Richardson is murdered. He’s not accidentally hit. He’s executed.”
After the shooting, Richardson ran into a nearby store on Dudley Street and collapsed — and moments later, Carvalho and another friend ran into the same store to find Richardson bleeding to death.
“You’ll hear that Peter Carvalho was hysterical and crying,” said Porges. “They were screaming for an ambulance, do something, put him in a car, get him to the hospital.”
Police and emergency responders swarmed, but Carvalho refused to leave his friend’s side, Porges said.
“Peter Carvalho is hunched over Shannon Richardson; he has to be pulled away by one of the officers. He stays,” said Porges. “An ambulance is on the way. He still stays. First aid is being done to Shannon Richardson. Peter Carvalho stays.
“While his childhood best friend is being loaded into the ambulance, he’s still there, surrounded by police officers. He stays.”
But Burdman said two police officers saw Carvalho behaving suspiciously around the time of the shooting, and the two eyewitnesses saw the shooting clearly. Both eyewitnesses independently picked Carvalho out of a lineup, she said.
But Porges said the lineup was conducted on the street after the shooting and included three police officers with short hair and Carvalho, with long dreadlocks.
“Who do they pick?” she asked. “The one person with dreadlocks.”
Both Burdman and Porges brought up the fact that after the shooting, many people in the neighborhood could not believe that Carvalho would kill his best friend and suggested it may have been another man who looks like Carvalho but is a member of the rival gang.
Burdman said police were never able to track down anyone with firsthand knowledge that this other gang member committed the crime — just rumors. But Porges said that many people refused to speak with the police.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details,” said Burdman. “I am going to ask you to please pay particular attention to the details. Because it is the details in this case that are going to lead you to the conclusion that Peter Carvalho is guilty.”
Evan Allen can be reached at evan.allen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @evanmallen.