Radio Personality Found Dead With Gunshot Wound: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Thursday, Dec. 9. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• A big gun buyback event is back this weekend, with police offering grocery store gift cards in exchange for firearms.
• Police are investigating three burglaries in Wellesley that happened while residents were home asleep early Wednesday morning. Similar burglaries happened just weeks ago in another neighborhood; police said the thieves entered through unlocked doors in each case.
• A Marlborough man who filmed a sleeping state trooper says he was pulled over in retaliation minutes after the incident.

Today's top story

A Cape Cod radio personality was found dead with a gunshot wound in his Hyannis home Wednesday, according to the Cape & Islands District Attorney's office.

Around 6 p.m., Barnstable police and fire officials were called to a home on Oakview Terrace after receiving a call that a man, later identified as Eric Christensen, 51, was unresponsive.

Christensen was a radio personality with Cape Cod's iHeartRadio affiliate and went under the name Eric "The Prozac'" Christensen.

Read more here.

Thursday's other top stories

Wellesley homes burglarized while residents slept: Police are warning residents to be careful following three early morning burglaries on Wednesday. One or more burglars entered homes along Garden, Sawyer and Hawthorne roads while the residents inside were asleep. The burglars got inside through unlocked doors and windows, police said.

Marlborough man who filmed sleeping trooper stopped minutes later: The man who videotaped a state trooper who appeared to be sleeping while on duty told MassLive he was stopped by another trooper roughly three minutes after taking the video. The trooper told Nick Ford he was being pulled over for using an electronic device, but Ford felt the stop was "retaliation."

Homelessness up in Worcester: Members of the city's homelessness outreach team told the Human Rights Commission (HRC) on Monday that there are now 370 homeless people living either in shelters or on city streets.

DA's office requests inquest for man shot by police: Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan has requested that an inquest be conducted for 28-year-old Michael Conlon, the man who was fatally shot by Newton police inside a building on Lincoln Street earlier this year.

Picture this

The MetroWest Drug Task Force (which includes Ashland, Marlborough and Natick officers) seized a gun after tracking down a stolen SUV in Framingham.

They said it

"We ask gun owners across the community to take a step back and assess how their situation may have changed over the past year. Perhaps they now have a curious toddler in their life, or a family member struggling with depression or substance use disorder."

• Worcester Medical Director Dr. Michael Hirsh asking local gun owners to consider participating in a buyback event that will happen on Saturday. Nine local police departments will serve as collection points for the weapons.

In case you missed it

MA colleges requiring extra COVID vaccine: Several colleges will require eligible students, staff and faculty to get COVID-19 booster shots for the spring semester. The Boston Globe reported Wednesday Boston College, UMass and Emerson are among those extra dose of vaccination. The news comes as COVID-19 cases spike and the Omicron variant spreads ahead of what could be another harsh pandemic winter.