‘A senseless tragedy’: Everett man found guilty of murder after 2021 homecoming football game

EVERETT, Mass. — A man was found guilty of shooting and killing a young Randolph man in 2021 following a football game.

22-year-old Michael J. Stanton of Everett, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting 20-year-old Craig McDonald Jr. on October 22, 2021, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

On that day just before 8 p.m., Everett Police responding to the area of Revere and Second Street for a report of shots fired found that McDonald Jr. had been taken to the CHA Everett Hospital Emergency Department with a gunshot wound. He later died from his injury.

Investigators determined the shooting stemmed from a fight on social media between Stanton and McDonald Jr. The DA’s office says the involved parties attended the Everett homecoming game, where Stanton and his friends actively monitored McDonald Jr. and his girlfriend. They shot McDonald Jr. when he left the game and was sitting in his car.

“This case is an example of the dangerous trend of young people illegally possessing firearms and using them to perpetrate violence in our communities,” District Attorney Ryan said. “As hundreds of students, families and other spectators milled around the stadium celebrating an annual football tradition, the defendant brazenly tracked McDonald down in that same neighborhood. When he found him, he used an illegally possessed firearm to end his life. This was truly a senseless tragedy.”

Stanton was convicted following a three week trial and will be sentenced at a later date.

Luiz Perlera is also charged with the murder of McDonald Jr. and will be arraigned later this month.

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