NEW BEDFORD — The son of former Boston Red Sox first baseman George Scott allegedly killed his 8-year-old son in their home here on Friday before taking his own life, a little more than two weeks after detectives investigating the disappearance of the boy’s mother had searched the home, authorities said.
The boy was identified as Dante Hazard, Bristol District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III’s office said Friday night.
Shortly after 8 a.m., police received a request to conduct a well-being check at the home of George Scott III, 54, officials said. The request was made by a relative who had been unable to get in touch with Scott, officials said.
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Officers arrived to a tragic scene.
”It appears from the evidence recovered at the scene to be a murder-suicide involving” Scott and his young son, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesperson for Quinn. “Mr. Scott, who is believed to have killed the boy before taking his own life, was living at the Phillips Road home with the boy.”
Miliote confirmed that Scott is the son of the former baseball player, who had multiple stints with the Red Sox in the 1960s and ‘70s.
A white Oldsmobile without license plates sat in the driveway at Scott’s home on Friday evening. The shades were drawn closed on the home’s front windows facing Phillips Road, and a blue ADT home security sign was stuck in the ground near the front porch.
Courtney Colombo, 34, has lived in the house next to Scott’s home since 2020 with her boyfriend.
“He seemed like a nice guy, would always say ‘Hi’ if he saw us,” she said Friday. “Sometimes I would see the boy out there playing but I never really knew if he lived there or not because you wouldn’t see him all the time.”
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Colombo said she was at work Friday morning when her Ring camera detected motion in front of their house. She checked the camera on her phone and saw police officers stringing yellow tape across Scott’s driveway and roping it off the handrail on her front porch.
“I was shocked to hear what happened,” she said. “I was not expecting this. I just feel bad for the boy, he didn’t deserve any of that.”
Authorities have been investigating the March 2019 disappearance of Lisa Hazard, the mother of George Scott III’s son, Miliote said. Detectives searched the Phillips Road home about 2½ weeks ago as part of the probe.
John Reis, 71, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said his wife was walking their dog that morning and saw police vehicles parked outside the home.
“It was weird because, of course, everybody is curious and everybody went online but there was nothing,” he said.
Officials said Scott is “a person of interest” in Hazard’s disappearance, which remains under investigation.
Reis was alarmed to see police back at the house Friday and was shocked when he learned that Scott and his son were dead.
“It’s just so sad,” he said. “How can you take an 8-year-old’s life?”
Reis recalled “Boomer Scott” from his Red Sox years, but said he did not know that Scott III was his son.
George Scott III had recalled his father in a Boston.com interview in 2021, when he was promoting the release of an NFT collection featuring his dad, who was known as “Boomer” and is a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame.
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“He was a great guy,” Scott III said of his father, who died in 2013.
When he was playing minor league baseball in the 1990s, Scott III told the Globe of his desire to distinguish himself in sports.
“I always knew that I wanted to be a professional athlete in something,” Scott III said at the time. “I always knew I could play baseball.”
Jeremiah Manion of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Follow him @NickStoico.