The owner of the store was Jared Silva. On October 12, 2007, he was robbed by two thugs after he closed the store. Mr. Silva fought back and yelled for help. One of the criminals, Cosmo Frieson, knocked Mr. Silva to the ground and his accomplice, Gary Clarke, shot Mr. Silva in the head.
Frieson pled guilty to attempted robbery; he wasn't charged with killing Mr. Silva because Frieson ratted out his confederate. Clarke's first trial resulted in a hung jury; he pled out to manslaughter after the second trial commenced.
Mr. Silva was an Eagle Scout and, by all accounts, a decent man. Frieson is out on parole. Clarke has another eleven years to go.
The package store has been closed since the shooting. No other business has gone in the succeeding thirteen years.
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1. "Package stores" is the southern New England term for liquor stores. The term apparently has something to do with old laws requiring liquor to be sold in "the original packages" as received from the distiller, to avoid adulteration. Or, if you prefer, a theory that it was illegal to walk out of the store carrying the bottles themselves, so they had to be in some sort of package.
1 comment:
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