MEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - A man accused of fatally shooting his nephew behind the Cambridge District Courthouse following a restraining order hearing has been ordered held without bail.
Chenghai Xue, 44, was arraigned Friday in Somerville District Court on a murder charge in connection with the death of his nephew, who Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan identified as a 23-year-old Revere man.
Law enforcement officials responding to a report of a shooting in the area 4040 Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford shortly before 5 p.m. found Xue’s nephew suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to Ryan and Medford Police Chief Jack Buckley.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A preliminary investigation indicates that Xue and his nephew were at the courthouse because Xue was seeking an extension on a restraining order that he had filed against his nephew, authorities said. The continuance was denied and both men left the building.
After the two exited the building, Xue allegedly got into his car and drove into the victim and several other vehicles in the parking lot. After he hit and pinned his nephew, authorities said Xue got out of his car and shot him several times at point-blank range.
“It’s my understanding that his nephew, now deceased, was outside of his car, and then he just drove into him and pinned him against the other car, and then reversed, and then began the gunshots,” said the suspect’s attorney, Bill Barabino. “It’s really upsetting and I think if any of us met him, I think you’d say he was a very kind and gentle guy, but obviously, he was building stuff up inside that none of us knew about. He didn’t have the ability to express it.”
Barabino described the suspect as an otherwise gentle man with a Ph.D. and two kids.
“People are always at the courthouse for incidents that are upsetting in some way, either they are a victim, they are a witness, they have found themselves in trouble,” Ryan said. “It’s already a place that’s a very heightened situation. To have something like this unfolding, particularly at the end of the day as people were leaving the courthouse, employees were leaving, other things were finishing up, people making their way to the parking lot, is extremely concerning.”
Xue is due back in court on May 4 for a probable cause hearing.
The shooting remains under investigation.
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