In the hours leading up to Thanksgiving Day in 2023, a house party on Westford Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, turned tragic, ending the life of 19-year-old Sakdara Khoeun. On November 22, 2023, amidst what was described as a spirited gathering, Khoeun was shot. In the frantic moments that followed, his friends rushed him to a local hospital, but their efforts were in vain, as he was pronounced dead later that day. An autopsy would later confirm that a single gunshot wound to the abdomen was the cause of his untimely death.
The Lowell Police and Massachusetts State Police immediately launched a thorough investigation into the shooting. Their inquiries led them to identify a suspect: Dustin Defrietas, also 19 years old and a resident of Lowell. Authorities moved quickly to secure an arrest warrant for Defrietas, charging him with assault and battery with a firearm, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, possession of a firearm, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.
A cross-country manhunt for Defrietas ensued, culminating in his capture on Thanksgiving night, November 23, 2023. Acting on information that Defrietas was traveling by train, Massachusetts State Police alerted law enforcement in Stanislaus County, California. Officers from the Stockton Police Department apprehended him at an Amtrak station on South San Joaquin Street. Following his arrest, arrangements were made for his transportation back to Massachusetts to face the charges related to Khoeun's death. The case remains under the jurisdiction of the Middlesex District Attorney's Office as the investigation continues.
