Mission Hill Hardware Store Shooting: 3 Indicted For Murdering Shopkeeper

BOSTON, MA — The three men who allegedly went into a hardware store and fatally shot the store owner were indicted with first-degree murder for the homicide of 58-year-old Andres Cruz in his Mission Hill hardware store.

In addition to first-degree murder, the indictments charge Jerome Hobson,38, of Dorchester, Shawn Redden 26, of Brockton, and Christian Soto-Olivero 21, of Mattapan with armed robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm for the July 18 incident at AC Hardware on Tremont Street on the border with Jamaica Plain.

All three defendants have been held without bail since July 19, when Redden and Soto-Olivero were arraigned in West Roxbury Municipal Court and Hobson was arraigned at Boston Medical Center, where he was being treated for serious laceration injuries he had apparently sustained during the fatal encounter. Friday's indictments move their cases to Suffolk Superior Court, where they will be adjudicated.

Boston Police apprehended the defendants shortly after the robbery and homicide thanks to the assistance of neighborhood witnesses, according to the DA, including one who saw the shop’s door to be closed in the middle of the day, a second whom this witness asked to check on Cruz and found him mortally wounded, and a third who observed three men – one of them bleeding badly – leaving the area.

(( Sign up for breaking Boston News Alerts))

Verner told the court that a witness saw that the front door of Cruz’s shop was closed in the middle of the afternoon that day, which she found unusual, and then saw three men leaving the area and heading “cautiously” toward St. Alphonsus St. This witness told a family member to check on things at the store.
This second witness entered the store and found Cruz on the floor, badly injured. Running out of the store, he encountered a Boston Transportation Department worker, told her what happened, and asked if she had seen three men leaving the area. She had – and in fact had just had a brief parking-related interaction with three men, one of whom made a statement about leaving the area, Verner said. The BTD employee notified Boston Police, as did a fourth witness who observed three men fleeing the area, one of whom appeared to be bleeding badly.
“These witnesses provided Boston Police with information that proved to be critical in locating the suspects’ vehicle,” Conley said. “There’s no question that their tips helped solve a homicide and will help a grief-stricken family find justice.”
A short time later, Boston Police officers armed with descriptions of the men and their van spotted the suspect vehicle and pulled it over. Hobson and Redden jumped out and attempted to flee, with Redden allegedly discarding a pile of bills and a receipt from the hardware store; they and Soto-Olivero were all taken into custody. The injuries that Soto-Olivero and Redden sustained inside AC Hardware were consistent with a blood trail that Verner described running from the shop to the spot in which their van had been seen by the BTD employee on St. Alphonsus St.
Hobson, Soto-Olivero, and Redden were represented by attorneys Robert Griffin, John Galvin, and Michael Bourbeau, respectively.
RELATED: Mission Hill Shooting, 1 Dead, 3 Arrested
Photo of Boston Police Cruiser by Jenna Fisher/Patch