BOSTON (WHDH/AP) — One of two doctors found dead and bound inside their penthouse in a luxury condominium building in South Boston had texted a friend that there was “a gunman in the house,” prosecutors revealed Monday as the suspect in their murders was arraigned from his hospital bed.
Authorities said that friend called police on Friday night, and responding officers found the bodies of Dr. Lina Bolanos and Dr. Richard Field, along with a black backpack filled with jewelry, prosecutors said at suspect Bampumim Teixeira’s arraignment.
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An attorney for Teixeira, 30, of Chelsea, entered not-guilty pleas on his behalf to two counts of murder. Teixeira kept his eyes closed through his arraignment, and his lawyer didn’t argue for bail. Teixeira had been shot in the hand, abdomen and leg during a shootout with police.
Officers responding to a report of a man with a gun Friday found keys to the engaged doctors’ Dorchester Ave. condo on the floor outside and discovered the unit in the Macallen Building dark when they entered, Suffolk County prosecutors said. Field had sent the text message to a friend, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the victims were found bound and dead. Sources tell 7’s Steve Cooper that both victims had their throats slashed.
At a news conference Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said Texeira did not, in fact, open fire on police officers, as Police Commissioner William Evans initially said. Conley said officers believed Teixeira pointed a gun at them and opened fire, hitting Teixeira multiple times. He was taken to a hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. No officers were injured.
Watch the full news conference below:
Conley also clarified that there is no evidence to believe that Teixeira personally knew Bolanos or Field.
The district attorney’s office said Teixeira has a pair of larceny convictions on his record. In June of last year, he passed a note demanding money at a Boston bank. He committed the same crime two years earlier.
Teixeira is due back in court in June for a probable cause hearing. Prosecutors did not reveal a motive for the murders.
A judge agreed to seal some documents in the case for 90 days.
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Bolanos, 38, was a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, according to its website, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Field, 49, also an anesthesiologist, worked at North Shore Pain Management.
Dr. Sunil Eappen, chief medical officer and chief of anesthesia at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said in a statement on the hospital’s website that he first met Bolanos when she was a young researcher.
“We have worked together since 2011, except for a short break when she moved to Texas for a few months,” Eappen said, “I watched her mature and blossom from a young medical school graduate to a fabulous experienced pediatric anesthesiologist.”
Eappen said she performed her job with both great skill and compassion.
“Everyone at Mass. Eye and Ear really loved her,” he said. “It is desperately hard for all of us to fathom that our friend who never failed to brighten our days is no longer with us.”
On its website, North Shore Pain Management said Field was “instrumental in the creation of this practice.”
“He was a valued member of the medical community and a tremendous advocate for his patients,” the statement said. “His tragic and sudden passing leaves an inescapable void in all of us.”
Watch the full arraignment below:
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