On the morning of March 30, 2018, Michael Ross, a 34-year-old Black / African American male, was fatally shot in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. The incident occurred around 9:10 a.m. near 120 Quincy Street. Ross, who was known to friends as "Pac Man," was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
The investigation into the death of Michael Ross led to the identification of three suspects.
Two men, Dario Baxter, 21, of Roxbury, and Dawon Wright, 22, of Dorchester, were arrested and arraigned in May 2018. A third individual, Dakarai Pittman, was also implicated. Prosecutors alleged that Baxter drove Wright and Pittman to Wayland Street in Dorchester. According to prosecutors and surveillance footage, Wright, wearing a red jacket, exited the vehicle, followed Ross on foot, and shot him six times from behind. Pittman was identified as the lookout. After Ross collapsed, Wright and Pittman allegedly got back into the car, and Baxter drove them away from the scene.
Baxter was charged with murder and being an accessory after the fact, while Wright faced charges of murder and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition. The subsequent trial in 2019 for the three men resulted in a hung jury, and the judge declared a mistrial. Following this, a new trial was scheduled. However, in April 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that retrying Dario Baxter for first-degree murder would constitute double jeopardy. The court determined that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven that Baxter knew the other two men planned to kill Ross. The court did, however, rule that Baxter could still be tried on the charges of being an accessory after the fact and on gun-related charges.
