On a Tuesday afternoon, November 3, 2020, Jean Carlos "JC" Lopez, a 30-year-old Black / African American male, was shot outside of his home on Myrtle Street in Taunton, Massachusetts. First responders found him with a gunshot wound and transported him to Morton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The incident was reported by neighbors as a drive-by shooting.
The investigation into Lopez's death quickly became an active and ongoing priority for local and state police.
Approximately six weeks after the shooting, on December 16, 2020, authorities arrested a suspect. Kali Hollingsworth, a 26-year-old resident of Taunton, was taken into custody without incident at his mother's home on School Street. He was subsequently charged with the murder of Jean Carlos Lopez.
A tragic irony shadowed Lopez's death. He had been released from prison in March 2020, just months before he was killed. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had overturned his 2013 first-degree murder conviction in connection with the 2010 stabbing death of 17-year-old Tigan Hollingsworth. The state's highest court ruled that prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Lopez was present at the scene of that crime. At the time of his shooting, law enforcement officials stated it was too soon to determine if his death was connected to the 2010 homicide.
