Lynn resident's ID at question in Boston shooting
January 22, 2009

By Dan O'Brien / The Daily Item

LYNN - A clerk magistrate in Suffolk Superior Court doubled the bail Tuesday to $200,000 cash for a Lynn man accused of shooting three people, including one in the face, on an East Boston street Thanksgiving morning, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley's Office.

In a new twist to the case, authorities believe Holvin Cruz, 32, of 19 Nahant St. #3, has been using a false identity since his arrest.

In light of grand jury proceedings, prosecutors say Cruz' true identity is Ramon Antonio Altagracia, 29, formerly of the Dominican Republic.

Newly released details on the shooting indicate three of the four people injured in the incident appeared to be innocent victims at the hands of Altagracia, a rage-filled ex-boyfriend.

Authorities say the shooting happened after the female victim and her family members had a peaceful encounter with the suspect at a Revere nightclub hours earlier, but imply the motive might have stemmed from an argument the former couple had a few days before.

The young woman and her family me-mbers went to an East Boston restaurant to have a late dinner and were getting into their car on Bremen Street about 2 a.m. when Altagracia allegedly drove up in a gold 1999 Honda Accord and opened fire. The woman was grazed in the chest, but a man was shot in the face and another man shot in the chest and arms. A third man suffered serious injuries from flying shards of glass.

The unidentified victim who was shot in the face remains hospitalized nearly two months after the shooting.

Police stopped the suspect's vehicle less than one mile from the scene and detected a strong odor of gunpowder inside, authorities said.

Authorities say the defendant and the female victim had a brief romantic relationship a few months prior to the Thanksgiving shooting. In early November, the two saw each other at an unidentified Revere nightclub and engaged in a physical altercation, but police were not notified about the incident.
Prosecutors recommended Altagracia be held on $1 million cash bail, which Conley's spokesman Jake Wark described as a "near fatal triple shooting."

According to Wark, Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson doubled Altagracia's bail to $200,000, saying his immigration status was "of primary concern." Wark said the suspect's true identity was revealed after an investigation by Assistant District Attorney Holly Broadbent, chief of Conley's Domestic Violence Unit.

"These developments reflect the power of the grand jury to find the truth in a complex set of circumstances," Conley said. "At the end of the day, however, what's most important here is that we hold accountable a man who used potentially deadly violence in the context of a terminated romance."

Cruz is represented by attorney William Keefe. He is expected to return to court on February 12.

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