Three arrested in South Hadley shooting

By EMILY CUTTS

@ecutts_HG

Published: 11-30-2016 11:42 PM

BELCHERTOWN — A South Hadley man is reported to be in stable condition after he was shot thrice in the abdomen Saturday at his Amherst Road apartment, an incident that has led to the arrest of three men.

Friends took the 29-year-old victim to Holyoke Medical Center Saturday night. He was then transferred to Baystate Medical Center where he was treated for his wounds, according to South Hadley Police.

Three men have been arrested in connection to the shooting. Two were arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court Wednesday, while the third is expected to be arraigned Thursday.

Joseph N. Massa, 18, of 191 Route 20 in Chester, pleaded not guilty to six charges including home invasion, assault and attempt to rob with a firearm, and assault and battery with a firearm, as well as three firearm possession charges.

He was held on $5,000 bail and ordered to have no contact with the victim if released.

Dupree A. Hinds, 30, of Chicopee, pleaded not guilty to seven charges — four firearm possession charges as well as charges of home invasion, assault and attempt to rob with a firearm, and assault and battery with a firearm.

Hinds, who has multiple assault convictions, was ordered held on $50,000 bail.

Robert D. Vanhoy, 19, of 11 Pleasant St. in South Hadley, was arrested in Belchertown on Wednesday and faces charges similar to Massa.

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Police believe the incident was a “targeted act of violence” and not a random incident.

South Hadley Police were contacted by a sergeant with the West Springfield Police around 7:30 p.m. Saturday after the officer responded to a report of a male patient at an area hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen.

A woman had brought the man to the hospital after he called her to say that he had been shot.

When South Hadley Detective Trudy Romanovicz arrived, another woman, the victim’s girlfriend, told police she received a call around 4 p.m. from her boyfriend. At his apartment on Amherst Road, she found him sitting on a couch, holding his stomach, Romanovicz wrote.

The woman tried to get him to call an ambulance but the man declined, saying he didn’t want to call attention to himself. Later Saturday, after securing a search warrant, police searched the basement apartment and found a bullet as well as shell casing of a 9 mm caliber firearm.

In an interview with Romanovicz and another officer two days later, the man told police he had been living in the apartment since October. Unemployed, he had been selling drugs, specifically marijuana, according to court records.

The man told police that he was contacted by Massa, to whom he had previously sold marijuana, sometime Saturday so the teen could purchase more.

The man also told police Massa “was a good kid” and he never had any problems with him in the six months he knew him, Romanovicz wrote.

Having unlocked the outside door to his apartment, the man returned to his couch to wait for Massa to arrive, according to court documents.

At some point, three men came into the apartment and one immediately pulled out a handgun and told the man to give him everything he had, Romanovicz wrote.

The man warned he was going to call police and that his landlord, who was in the apartment above, would hear.

As he started to dial 911, his attacker shot him. According to his statement to police, he immediately stood up and punched one of the men in the face as hard as he could and then chased them out of the apartment, according to court documents.

The incident remains under investigation.

Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.

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