John Cloud, an 81-year-old Caucasian male, met a tragic and unexpected end on a summer evening in a Tiverton, Rhode Island cemetery. On June 13, 2016, what was supposed to be a meeting to discuss a financial matter turned into a fatal encounter. Cloud, a resident of Kingston, Massachusetts, had arranged to meet 80-year-old Edward Acquisto of Tiverton in the quiet Pocasset Hill Cemetery, a place Acquisto was known to frequent for reading his Bible.
The purpose of their meeting was a significant loan that Acquisto had taken from Cloud's church in 2011 and had failed to repay in any substantial amount.
The tranquility of the cemetery was shattered shortly before 7 p.m. by the sound of gunshots, which were heard by people visiting the graves of their loved ones. In a violent turn of events, Acquisto shot and killed John Cloud amongst the gravestones. This was not a random act of violence; the two men were known to each other, and the dispute over the unpaid loan was the motive behind the deadly confrontation.
Following the shooting, Acquisto fled the scene in his vehicle, leading police on a chase that crossed into the neighboring city of Fall River, Massachusetts, before looping back into a residential neighborhood in Tiverton. The pursuit came to an end on a dead-end street, where Acquisto, cornered, opened fire on the officers. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, two officers from Fall River and one from Tiverton returned fire, fatally wounding Acquisto. The suspect, it was later revealed, had a criminal history that included a no-contest plea to manslaughter in 1982 and a conviction for sexual assault in 1981, for which he had been on parole at the time of the incident.
