Background: The car involved in the deadly attack on Stuart Smith (YouTube screengrab/WCVB). Inset top: Victim Stuart Smith (via Facebook). Inset bottom: Murder suspect Vasco Semedo (YouTube screengrab/WBZ).
A man in Massachusetts is facing murder charges for allegedly running down another man — who had previously been injured in a car crash as a child — and hitting him with a brick more than a dozen times.
Vasco Semedo, 45, allegedly ran 50-year-old Stuart Smith down with his Toyota SUV on Saturday morning, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. Several witnesses had called police to report “a motor vehicle versus pedestrian crash” in Brockton, some 25 miles south of Boston.
Police arrived to discover Semedo being detained by people at the scene.
Smith was found “unresponsive on the pavement in front of the motor vehicle” and was taken to the hospital, where he died of his injuries.
People who had watched events unfold described a violent and grisly scene, the DA’s office said.
“Through witness accounts and surveillance video footage, investigators found that Semedo, operating a Toyota RAV 4, struck Smith with his motor vehicle, backed up, drove into the victim again, before exiting the vehicle and striking Smith more than 20 times with a brick as he lay on the ground,” the news release said.
Boston Fox affiliate WFXT reported that prosecutors said Semedo appeared to hit Smith intentionally, running his car into a brick wall before turning debris from the crash into a weapon.
As NBC affiliate WBTS reported, Smith was a beloved figure in his community.
“He was a beacon of light to his friends and family,” the victim’s brother Damien Smith told the station. Family members also said that Stuart Smith had struggled with mental health throughout his life after being hit by a car as a child.
“Everybody knew him, and just came to surround him and help him and they kept the perpetrator there so he couldn’t leave,” Smith’s sister, Rosemary Schneider, said. “I think that speaks volumes to my brother’s character.”
Neighbors told WBTS that everyone in the neighborhood knew Smith.
“He didn’t probably do anything to deserve that, that’s awful,” Tara Manning told the station. “He was a figure around here, I just can’t believe he had to go out that way, somebody was so mad that they killed him? Like that’s crazy.”
WBTS reported that Smith was often seen collecting scrap metal and piling it into a shopping cart so he could sell it.
“I think it was a rotten thing to do to Stewie,” said Janis Jefferson, who lived in the same rooming house as Smith. “He was quite a guy, he really helped a lot of people.”
Police haven’t said if Semedo and Smith were known to each other or provided any information on a possible motive.
Semedo was charged with one count each of murder and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. He has pleaded not guilty, according to the DA’s office, and is being held without bail.
Semedo has a probable cause hearing scheduled for May 14, the DA’s office said.
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