BOSTON – A man who survived a deadly 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston identified former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez on Tuesday as the person who pulled the trigger.
Prosecutors asked Raychides Sanches during a pretrial hearing to describe the chaotic scene the night of July 16, 2012.
Sanches said he had been a passenger in a car stopped at a light in the city’s South End when an SUV pulled up. He said someone from the SUV said “What’s up, negroes?” and then gunshots began.
Sanches said the gunfire struck 29-year-old Daniel de Abreu and 28-year-old Safiro Furtado.
When asked who the shooter was, Sanches nodded in the direction of Hernandez in Suffolk Superior Court, the Boston Herald reported. “Looked like him,” he said. “Hernandez.”
Hernandez faces two counts of murder in the deaths of Furtado and de Abreu.
Prosecutors say he gunned down the two men after one of them bumped into him at a Boston nightclub earlier that night. The former tight end has pleaded not guilty.
Hernandez already is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 2013 shooting death of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.
Tuesday’s hearing focused on a number of pre-trial issues as Hernandez prepares to stand trial Feb. 13.
Prosecutors are asking the judge to allow Sanches and another survivor of the shooting to give a general description of the shooter.
Hernandez’s lawyers on Tuesday requested the trial be delayed.
