Police are now investigating the death of a young army veteran after he was shot and killed inside a home in Stoneham, Mass. at around 1:30 a.m. today, Boston MetroDesk reports, leaving another man hospitalized.
Currently three suspects are under arrest, and though the District Attorney's office has not yet identified them, reporters are learning more about Joseph Puopolo, a former high school hockey player and US Army veteran who survived a land mine explosion that wounded a fellow soldier during a tour of duty in Afghanistan before he was shot to death today while visiting a friend's house.
"He had a whole future ahead of him,'' Puopolo's godfather, Joseph Allessandro, said of the overnight shooting that happened at 6 Micah's Pond Way. "I saw this boy grow up; he loved me like his own father. I loved him dearly." He says 26-year old Puopolo was recently trying to become a state police officer, and neighbors say the cliche of quiet neighborhoods is true of their community.
"You hear about this type of stuff happening in Boston all the time, but not in a community like Stoneham,'' said Marie Coughlin, 61, a retired school teacher and resident of the small cul-de-sac.
"If you didn't have a nickel, he'd give you a dollar, that's the kind of person he was, " Allessandro said of his godson. "He wanted to help people.''
Allessandro said that Puopolo's mother called him at around 3 a.m. to tell him that his godson was dead. "It was devastating all around,'' Allesandro said, adding that his godson's birthday was just last week and recalled that he had given him a gift in celebration. "I gave him a beautiful chain with St. Michael on it, the patron saint of the Army,'' he said. "He loved it.''
Puopolo also had a steady girlfriend "who he spent a lot of quality time with," and recently became an uncle when his sister gave birth to a baby girl. He was going to be the girl's godfather, as the christening is set for August 11th.
Puopolo enlisted in the US Army after high school and earned a spot in the special forces command. Alessandro explained that during a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he and a fellow soldier were wounded after stepping on a landmine, and Puopolo helped the other soldier to safety.
Mary Beth Long, a spokeswoman from the Middlesex District Attorney's Office said in a brief statement: "It does not appear to be random."
Currently no further information has been released by authorities, leaving much of what exactly happened that night shrouded in mystery.
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Click here to see another video report on the Stoneham shooting and watch Allessandro speak on the tragic loss of his godson.
