HOLYOKE — A mother always worries. But maybe it wasn’t her son.
Sitting in her Holyoke living room Saturday evening, Maria Gaetan, 74, stroked her dog as a local news station flashed scenes of the annual St. Patrick’s Road Race that had passed by her block earlier in the day, then detailed a violent Friday night incident at a South Hadley Dunkin’ Donuts.
Authorities say Jeffrey Torres, 29, of Holyoke stabbed a South Hadley police officer in the neck after he responded to a disturbance at the store. The officer shot Torres three times, striking him at least twice, according to the Northwestern district attorney’s office.
The two men were transported to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. The officer, who hasn’t been identified, was treated and released. Torres had surgery and remains in the hospital, where he is “expected to survive,” according to a statement from the DA’s office.
Gaetan has a 29-year-old son named Jeffrey Torres. But as of Saturday night, she told a Gazette reporter she wasn’t sure, yet, if he’s the same one.
Saturday afternoon, after hearing the news, three of Gaetan’s brothers went to Baystate, but were told that Torres was not listed in the hospital’s patient records. They then went to the South Hadley Police Department, where an officer said he could tell them nothing beyond what had been reported in the news. They tried calling the DA’s office, only to hear a recorded message listing its weekday hours.
“I just want to know if it’s the same guy, I just want to know if it’s Jeffrey,” Gaetan’s brother Luis Pagan, 57, said.
Gaetan said she believes there is at least one other man with the same name and age in Holyoke, explaining that she and her son once encountered a mix-up in court for that reason. So maybe, she suggested over and over Saturday, maybe the man described in the news is that other Jeffrey Torres.
As for her son, her Jeffrey Torres, Gaetan didn’t have a way to track him down. She flipped through a notebook to find his number and tried calling, but he didn’t pick up. She said he recently moved to Springfield but she wasn’t sure where. Her nephew said he had the address on a scrap of paper somewhere, but couldn’t find it, so they didn’t know where to look.
“Something happens like that, police have to come to my house,” Gaetan said. “Police are supposed to give me information.”
Gaetan said she last saw her son about a month ago, when he stopped by to drop off some food, including a box of Chinese soup and a small ham.
“He don’t call me, I don’t see him, I don’t know what he’s doing,” she said.
Torres lived in his mother’s apartment on Cabot Street for several months last year, but left after a dispute that turned physical, his nephew Jose Melendez, 23, said.
“His problem is when he doesn’t take his medicine he starts thinking you’re going to hurt him,” Melendez said.
Family members described Torres as a troubled and tough man, someone who suffers from mental health issues and is frequently intoxicated.
“He’s a real good guy, but sometimes he loses his mind,” Pagan said.
Gaetan agreed: “When he loses control he does a lot of things. He’s not himself. He changes. One person to another person.”
They said Torres’ ex-girlfriend, the mother of two of his children, works at the Dunkin’ Donuts in the South Hadley Shopping Center on Newton Street, where the incident occurred Friday. Gaetan described it as a tumultuous relationship, and said her son has a history of physical abuse.
Still, Gaetan clung to the notion that the man who stabbed a police officer and was shot Friday at that Dunkin’ Donuts could be someone other than her son.
Torres, who is being charged with armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, is due to be arraigned Monday morning — either at Baystate Medical Center or the Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, depending on his medical condition.
“We have to find out if that’s the real Jeffrey,” his uncle Jose Gaetan, 65, said after the evening news broadcast ended.
“If he’s the one who’s making trouble, he’s got to pay for that,” Pagan said.
But the broadcast didn’t name names. And they weren’t convinced.
“See. No name, no nothing,” Pagan said.
And then Melendez saw a news story online that identified the man as “29-year-old Jose Torres of Holyoke.”
Jose? They chuckled.
Another reason to believe it wasn’t their Jeffrey.
Stephanie McFeeters can be reached at smcfeeters@gazettenet.com.