Man charged with murder in Labor Day shooting inside Boston barbershop
BOSTON - A man from Canton, Massachusetts has been charged with killing a person in a barbershop in Boston on Labor Day.
Diamond Jose Brito, 32, was arrested in Mattapan around 7 p.m. Thursday, Boston Police said. He was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Friday morning in Dorchester District Court for the murder of 20-year-old Elijah Ricardo Clunie. Brito hid behind a door during the arraignment.
Shot in barber chair
Clunie, who lived in Dorchester, and another man were shot in the Exclusive Barbershop and Salon on Washington Street in Dorchester, just before 1 p.m. on Monday, September 2.
Prosecutors said Brito entered the barbershop, asked the barber how long a haircut would take and then left. About 20 or 30 minutes later, prosecutors said he came back, approached the chair where Clunie was sitting and fired one shot into his head. He then allegedly fired multiple shots at the other man.
Both were rushed to the hospital. Clunie died. The other victim, who has not been identified, is expected to survive, police said Friday.
License allegedly found in SUV
At the time, police said both were customers in the shop and that the shooting was not random.
Prosecutors said Friday they got surveillance video of an SUV circling the barbershop that Brito was seen getting in and out of. Police were able to get a license plate from the video and said the SUV belongs to a "significant other" of Brito. When investigators recovered the SUV days after the shooting, they said they found Brito's license inside.
Brito was wanted for several warrants for the murder, according to investigators. Prosecutors said he was also on federal supervised release in connection with a narcotics trafficking case.
He is due back in court on November 5.
"These incidents, cases like this, they can tear at the very heart of neighborhoods and rip at the very fabric of our communities," said Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden. "Senseless gun violence like this just can't be allowed to stand or continue."
