Family grateful to be alive after Foxboro highway shooting, rollover crash
FOXBORO - A Rhode Island family that survived a highway crash and shooting, hope a dangerous driver is taken off the streets.
The Herrera family was going home to Providence from Chelsea, Massachusetts on I-95 south when a driver who had just been shot hit them Saturday night.
Officials said the shooting was consistent with road rage but is still under investigation.
Emelington Herrera was driving with his wife Glendy, and one and half year-old son Leandro, coming from a family reunion that night.
"It's like God gave us a second chance in life," said Emelington Herrera. "We are OK from the accident but who knows the gunshots could have been to us."
State Police investigators say Justin Parker was driving behind the Herrera's SUV near Exit 17 on 95 south, when detectives say someone in a black or dark colored car fired several gunshots into Parker's Mercedes.
The 37-year-old crashed into the Herrera's SUV, and they rolled over three times into the woods.
"I remembered I had my baby in the back, and he started crying because they car ended up on the side like this," said Herrera. Luckily, baby Leandro was safely buckled up.
"I want to say thank you God for my family, my baby," said Glendy Herrera.
Justin Parker was transported by ambulance to Sturdy Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Friends say he leaves behind a daughter and family.
"This is terrible," said Parker's friend Robbie Bonin. "To lose a life that special, it's tough, it really is."
Now detectives hope someone out there has any video captured between 9:00pm to 10:00pm on Saturday.
The locations they're looking at are: I:95 south from Waltham to the Rhode Island line and the Southeast Expressway from Boston or Weymouth through Milton and Canton.
"If we're talking about it, I feel like that applies pressure on maybe whoever did do it and somebody might hear something," said Bonin.
And because a father lost his life, and it was a close call for the Herrera's they hope anyone who knows anything, does the right thing.
"Why put other lives in danger," said Emelington Herrera. "It doesn't work to risk other people's lives."
Members of the public who have information or video to share are asked to call the State Police Detective Unit for Norfolk County at 781-327-9801.
