On a late Friday night in East Boston, the life of 29-year-old Taquise Johnson, a Black male from Boston, was tragically cut short. Just before midnight on June 1, 2018, police responded to a call for shots fired in the area of 800 Border Street. Arriving at the scene, officers found Johnson in an open-air garage beneath the Shore Plaza apartments, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into the shooting suggested a narrative of a friendly gathering turned fatal. Johnson had reportedly been hanging out with several other people, including the man who would later be accused of his murder. Evidence indicated that Johnson and another man, Jeremy Menedez, 29, of Nashua, New Hampshire, walked to a more secluded, darkened area of the garage. It was there that Menedez allegedly shot Johnson multiple times. A second firearm, which had not been fired, was discovered near Johnson's body.
Following the shooting, the suspect fled the scene in a car allegedly driven by 23-year-old Kavara Rivera of Chelsea. An investigation led by Boston Police homicide detectives pointed to Menedez as the primary suspect. He was later located and arrested in New Hampshire by the Boston Police Fugitive Unit, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and Nashua Police Department, and was extradited to Boston to face a murder charge. He was ordered held without bail. Rivera was also implicated in the aftermath of the crime. She was indicted by a Suffolk County Grand Jury on charges of being an accessory after the fact to murder and for allegedly lying to investigators during the investigation.
