HADLEY — Not long after 911 calls were made to Hadley police at 10:04 p.m. Sunday about shots fired inside the Walmart store at Mountain Farms Mall, officers observed the black Mercedes identified as the getaway vehicle traveling on Route 9 toward Northampton.
After the car was pulled over by Officers Rylan Baronas and Jacob Marini before the vehicle got to the intersection with East Street — where the police station and public safety complex is located — Officer Jacob Laughlin parked his cruiser to block the state highway to prevent other vehicles from passing. He used his rifle-mounted flashlight to illuminate the suspect vehicle, and then got into a prone position, pointing his rifle at the suspects.
Moments later, a speeding black Mercury approached the scene and stopped, and Laughlin redirected his rifle toward the car and ordered its occupants out. Inside were two young men, ages 18 and 19, the two apparent victims of the shooting, along with an unidentified driver and another passenger.
The statement of facts written by Laughlin provides more of the details surrounding the incident that occurred in the store’s men’s bathroom that led to the arrests of the two people in the suspect vehicle, Wilmer Alvarez, 26, of Chicopee, and Keyla A. Fernandez, 32, of Holyoke.
In Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on Monday, Alvarez pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with intent to murder, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a license, and possession with intent to distribute a class A drug, heroin, and a class B drug, cocaine.
He was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Fernandez pleaded not guilty to charges of being an accessory to a crime after the fact, misleading a police officer, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a license, and possession with intent to distribute a class A drug, heroin, and a class B drug, cocaine. Fernandez was held on $5,000 cash bail pending a Sept. 20 pretrial conference.
The men who were injured were taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, though a Baystate spokesman said Tuesday that neither teen was in the hospital’s patient database.
The police narrative notes that one of the shooting victims had “extensive damage to his face” from a wound to his upper lip.
“He had blood pouring from his mouth and stated that he could feel a bullet in his neck.” He had also been shot in the leg, and Laughlin applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
The second shooting victim suffered wounds to his arm and chest.
The statement of facts also provided information about how evidence was gathered and the pistol that is believed to have been used in the shooting was located.
A black fanny pack apparently discarded from the suspect vehicle was located along the edge of Route 9 about 100 yards east of the stop. The fanny pack contained a loaded Glock 26 Gen4 pistol.
Near the fanny pack were wax paper bags with a brown powdery substance consistent with heroin and a glassine baggie with a white powdery substance consistent with cocaine. Alvarez also had $600 on him during booking, according to the statement of facts.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
