National Football League

Man IDs Hernandez in 2012 slayings

Published Oct. 1, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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Aaron Hernandez was the trigger man in a 2012 drive-by that left two men dead, a man who claims to have survived the shooting told FOX 25 in Boston.

Hernandez, charged with the June 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, has been investigated in connection with the shooting deaths of Danny Abreu and Safiro Furtado that took place in July 2012 in the Boston’s South End. The man who spoke to FOX 25 — he wishes to remain anonymous — said he was in the back seat of the car that was fired on and displayed scars that he says are bullet wounds. He said he recognized Hernandez’s face after it was broadcast nationally following his arrest stemming from Lloyd’s murder.

“When I see his face, I just recognize his face. Compare his face that night to his face now. It’s that face that I remember,” he said.

The man says he, Abreu, Furtado and two other friends partied that night at Cure Lounge in Boston — where, according to previous reports, Hernandez was partying and got into a confrontation with Abreu and Furtado. But the man says  "We never had any trouble. We were not those kind of people. We were just having fun," he said.

They left around 2 a.m. and when they stopped at a red light, an SUV pulled up alongside their car. The man says he heard someone shout, “What up, Negroes?” and that’s when the bullets started flying.

“Things happened so fast. I was trying to defend myself,” the witness said. “They were shooting everywhere inside the car, front to back. They just came to kill. That’s it.”

Abreu and Furtado, the driver and front-seat passenger, were killed. The gray SUV sped away, and police were not able to find any information on the driver or owner of the car until they stumbled across a vehicle matching the same description at the Bristol, Conn., home of Hernandez’s uncle in June. The SUV reportedly was rented by Hernandez.

In August, Massachusetts State Police said that they had found a gun they believed to have been used in the unsolved 2012 murders. Police said they found the gun in the trunk of a car driven by a Bristol, Conn., resident named Jaliene Diaz-Ramos.

FOX 25 says it confirmed that the man has told his story to investigators. Boston police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office declined to comment, but outgoing Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told FOX 25 Morning News: "We've got the best homicide team in the city working on that. They are putting pieces of information together and presenting it to the grand jury, working very closely with the District Attorney's Office on that case. I'm satisfied with the direction it's going in, and I think that we'll come to the right conclusions on that."

The man who spoke to FOX 25 says he doesn't feel safe and still doesn't know why he and his friends were attacked.

"What's the reason? That's the answer I'm still wanting since last year. (Hernandez) must be crazy," he said.

Hernandez pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges following his indictment in the killing of Lloyd.

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