Holyoke shooting: Infant dead, mother in critical condition, police say

HOLYOKE, Mass. — “Multiple people” were shot Wednesday afternoon in the central Massachusetts city of Holyoke, police said.

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Two of three suspects identified

Update 8:47 p.m. EDT Oct. 5: The Hampden District Attorney’s Office said that Alejandro Ramos, 22, was held without bail after he was arraigned Thursday, according to WFXT. He was charged with a murder related to the shooting that happened Wednesday.

The second suspect was identified as Johnluis Sanchez, 30. He is still hospitalized and the DA’s office said he will arraigned formally on a charge of murder when his condition improves, the news outlet reported.

A third suspect has been identified by investigators but the DA’s office said he is not in custody yet.

“There are no words that could be sufficient in the face of what happened today to people in the Holyoke community, including innocent bystanders on a regional transit authority bus,” Acting Transportation Secretary and CEO Monica Tibbits-Nutt said in a statement, obtained by WFXT. Our thoughts are with them. And so are our hearts and our sorrow. Our prayers go out to everyone who has been, and will continue to be, affected by this senseless act of violence.”

-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Infant delivered, dies after mother critically injured

Update 8:53 p.m. EDT Oct. 4: An infant died after it was delivered when the baby’s mother was critically injured in a shooting Wednesday in Holyoke, Massachusetts, authorities said.

According to Hampden District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Jim Leydon, three male suspects were involved in an altercation, during which a shooting occurred, WWLP-TV reported. One of the rounds struck a public bus and wounded an uninvolved woman who was seated in the vehicle, according to the television station.

The woman, who was pregnant, was in critical condition at an area hospital, WFXT-TV reported. The woman’s unborn child was delivered but died despite life-saving medical procedures, according to WWLP.

“I heard about eight shots,” Boyd McCray, of Chicopee, told WGGB-TV. “I was standing on the street, waiting on the bus, and I just heard pop, pop, pop, pop, then I saw one police (officer) coming down and then I saw about a thousand more come after that.”

The three suspects were hospitalized and are now in custody, WFXT reported. Their conditions were unknown.

The names of the woman shot and those of the people involved in the shooting have not been released, according to The Associated Press.

The Hampden County District Attorney’s Office is handling the investigation, according to WFXT.

Original report: According to a Facebook post by the Holyoke Police Department, 911 operators received multiple calls for help, along with notifications from ShotSpotter, shortly before 1 p.m. EDT.

Responding officers found “multiple people” suffering from gunshot wounds, WFXT-TV reported.

Holyoke Police Detective Dorota Beben told WWLP-TV that the public was asked to avoid the downtown intersection of Sargeant and Maple streets.

It was unclear how many people were injured in the shooting. Police said that more information would be released later Wednesday.

The shooting happened hours after Holyoke police held a news conference to address the amount of gunfire picked up by the ShotSpotter system installed in the city seven months ago, according to the television station.

The ShotSpotter program is a detection system that allows police to detect, find, and respond to gunfire.

Holyoke, located about 90 miles west of downtown Boston, has a population of nearly 38,000, according to The Associated Press. The city is also home to the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.

The Holyoke Police Department said that over the past six months, the ShotSpotter system has detected 113 incidents involving gunfire, WWLP reported.