On April 28, 2003, Christopher 'Chris' Carvalho, a 28-year-old resident of Boston, Massachusetts, was fatally injured in a shooting incident that also claimed the life of another individual, Jose DaVeiga. The incident occurred in the South End of Boston, following a confrontation outside a Chinatown nightclub.
The events leading to the shooting began around 2:30 a.m.
when a group of men, including the suspects, left the nightclub and encountered a smaller group that included Carvalho and DaVeiga. The suspects, believing the smaller group to be rivals, split into two vehicles – a Honda driven by Carlos Silva and a Dodge minivan driven by Daniel Fernandes – and followed the victims' car. When the victims' vehicle stopped at a red light at the intersection of Albany and East Berkeley streets, a gunman in one of the suspect vehicles opened fire on them. As the victims' vehicle fled the scene, it crashed into a parked car on East Berkeley Street, where Odair Fernandes and another man opened fire from the minivan.
Carvalho was shot twice in the head and neck during the incident and was hospitalized for four years. Despite initial survival, he remained paralyzed and reliant on a machine for oxygen until his death on September 23, 2007, due to pneumonia exacerbated by his paralysis.
The suspects involved in the shooting were identified as Carlos Silva, Daniel Fernandes, and Odair Fernandes. Odair Fernandes was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges related to the incident and is currently serving a life term in prison. Carlos Silva and Daniel Fernandes were initially indicted as accessories after the fact to murder but fled the area before they could testify at trial. This led to the dismissal of charges against two of the men believed to be the gunmen. However, Silva and Fernandes were later re-indicted on homicide charges. Daniel Fernandes turned himself in and accepted a 10-year prison sentence. Carlos Silva, who had spent nearly a decade on the run using false identities, was located in 2015 by the Boston Police Fugitive Unit and US Marshals. He pleaded guilty to the original charge of accessory after the fact to murder in 2017.
The investigation and subsequent arrests were facilitated by the recovery of ballistic evidence and the execution of a search warrant on the minivan driven by Daniel Fernandes. The search led to the recovery of a second gun used in the shooting, further solidifying the case against the suspects.
The case was marked by significant delays and challenges, including the flight of key witnesses and the passage of over 14 years before all parties were brought to justice. However, the eventual convictions provided some closure for the families of the victims, as noted by District Attorney Dan Conley, who emphasized the ongoing support for the families as they moved forward in their healing process.
