AMHERST — Jose M. “Joselito” Rodriguez, 31, was the man slain in a shooting Friday night at an Amherst apartment complex, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan’s office announced Sunday.
A 28-year-old man who also suffered multiple gunshot wounds remained hospitalized at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, according to a statement issued Sunday by Sullivan’s office. That victim was not identified.
No arrests have been made, according to Carey, though police say the incident was not random and there is no threat to the public.
Sunday afternoon, friends of Rodriguez set up a vigil outside the Southpoint Townhouses and Apartments complex at 266 East Hadley Road. They placed candles and flowers on the ground in memory of their friend. They declined a request for comment and asked for privacy as they mourned.
Police first arrived at the apartment complex late Friday close to midnight. A portion of the complex was blocked off with yellow and red caution tape throughout the morning Saturday.
Cries rang out around the apartment complex late Saturday morning as those close to the victim learned of his death.
Around 11:30 a.m., a man walking past the scene picked up his cellphone. He gasped, bending over.
“They bodied my best friend,” he said. “No, no, no.”
As he rushed into a neighboring apartment building, an officer approached him. The man declined to speak with her.
“This is Amherst, Massachusetts,” the man said, shaking his head. “Not Mattapan.”
Moments later, a woman approached police and, evidently, learned her nephew was the shooting victim. She crumbled into tears. The woman stood next to her sedan, banging on the vehicle, calling out in Spanish for someone to tell her what happened. Tenants consoled her as she cried.
He was her favorite nephew, she told them.
Amherst Police, State Police from the district attorney’s office and the Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services are investigating the incident. Amherst police vehicles, including squad cars, undercover cars and a large van lined the perimeter of the parking lot Saturday. Investigators entered and exited the building, wearing blue paper slippers over their shoes as they gathered evidence.
As the day went on, friends of Rodriguez cycled in and out of the apartment. They said they saw blood on the walls. They said the 31-year-old was too young to die.
The most recent fatal shooting in Amherst was in 2004 on Meadow Street, when Bryan Johnston killed UMass Amherst student David Sullivan at an off-campus home.
Marilyn Rodriguez, of Holyoke, was visiting her niece Saturday night in the apartment next door to the shooting. She came to visit her niece in Amherst to feel safe after a shooting in Holyoke last week.
She was asleep on the couch when police came into the apartment and woke her around midnight. She was shocked to find a stray bullet lodged in the wall by the couch near where she was lying.
If the bullet had passed through the wall, it could have hit her, police told her.
“The bullet went in through the wall,” Rodriguez said. “The way the bullet came in, if it went through the wall I was going to get it.”
Rodriguez said the dead man was like family to her. She was in tears, a black hat pulled low over her brow.
“I was trying to get away from Holyoke, as bad as it is,” Rodriguez said. “Now here? This is crazy.”
Cheyenne Lewis said the shooting came as a shock to her, too. Lewis lives in a Southpoint apartment with her 11-month-old son, her boyfriend and her mother and father.
The apartment complex is a tight-knit community, she said. Lewis knew of the victim through mutual friends.
“I did not expect this at all,” Lewis said. “I was shocked to see it happen out here.”
The family used to live in Bronx, New York, and moved to Amherst three years ago to get away from the daily violence in that place.
Lewis’ father, Warren Douglas, said the violence felt senseless.
“It’s tragic. It does not have to happen,” Douglas said. “It’s unfair to the families.”
Shuvashish Kundu was in the apartment next door to where the shooting took place.
Kundu said he heard the gunshots around midnight just as he was going to bed. He heard screams and saw people running outside, he said.
“We heard the sound of bullets and we were lying down on the floor,” Kundu said.
Not long after, police knocked on his door and came inside. They were looking for cracks in the wall from bullets.
The shooting Friday night was the final straw for Kundu. He said he hopes to move his wife and two children out of the apartment soon. The family moved to Amherst from Japan three months ago, he said.
Kundu said his 13-year-old daughter was old enough to understand what happened next door, and she was afraid.
“We don’t want to stay here anymore,” Kundu said.
Ben Herrington is another resident of the Southpoint complex. According to Herrington, the apartment complex is populated equally by families and college students. UMass Amherst spokesman Ed Blaguszewski could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.
Herrington was ushering his friends out of his apartment around midnight when he saw a flurry of police activity across the parking lot. He did not hear the gunshots, he said.
By the time he went to bed at 2 a.m., Herrington said, the police were still outside and the lights were still flashing.
“All you heard was the sound of the crime lab truck,” Herrington said. “And radios.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Amherst Police Department at 413-259-3015, or to text a tip to the anonymous tip line at 274637.
Stephanie Murray can be reached at stephaniemur@umass.edu