Hispanic/Latino male Robert “Tito” Aponte-Flores, 25, was shot on the afternoon of July 12, 2023, in the Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Police and witnesses said an altercation broke out in a picnic area near Fearing Pond, where Aponte-Flores was visiting with his girlfriend, his 7-year-old son, and relatives. Responding officers found him with multiple gunshot wounds, including to the face, left tricep, and right collarbone.
He was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess–Plymouth Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after.
Detectives interviewed bystanders who described a confrontation between Aponte-Flores and a 20-year-old man just before shots were fired. The next day, July 13, Massachusetts State Police obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect, identified as John Geovanni Pires Monteiro Macedo.
On the afternoon of Saturday, August 5, 2023, members of the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section located Monteiro Macedo at an apartment in New Bedford and arrested him without incident. He was charged with murder in connection with Aponte-Flores’s death.
At his Plymouth District Court arraignment, Monteiro Macedo pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail. Prosecutors noted the eyewitness accounts of the altercation at the picnic area leading up to the shooting, and the case was scheduled to continue with a court date set for October 5, 2023, as the investigation remained active.
