BROCKTON, Mass. — A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.
Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.
“It’s a very gruesome, a very heinous act, intentional act,” Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said.
Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.
Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck the brick wall of a building nearby.
[ ‘I don’t have any words’: Family of pedestrian killed after ‘heinous’ attack in Brockton speaks ]
That’s when, according to prosecutors, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.
“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.”
Cruz commended about six witnesses who held Semedo on scene until police arrived.
Roy Johnson, a friend of the victim, said of Semedo, “It was unnecessary, OK? The guy didn’t have to do what he did.”
Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.
When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.
Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.
Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.
First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”
Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.
During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.
When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.
Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4.
Earl Haynes said he knew Smith, who lived nearby in a boarding house.
“He helped clean the building up. He don’t bother nobody, you know? He don’t bother nobody. He’s just an ordinary guy,” Haynes said.
Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.
“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”
Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.
Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.
A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.
Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.
Haynes, Smith’s friend, said of Semedo, “He needs to get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.
Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Semedo is due back in court on May 14.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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