Overview
- The gunfight on May 22 in a parking lot on Bowdoin Street left 22-year-old Giovanni Bala dead from multiple torso wounds, according to police and medical reports.
- This week prosecutors arrested 23-year-old Justin Ferrer on a first-degree murder charge related to Bala’s death.
- Ferrer pleaded not guilty at arraignment and is being held without bail while the case proceeds to a probable-cause hearing on August 19.
- Prosecutors say surveillance video, ShotSpotter detections of five shots and police reports that recovered two guns support their theory that Ferrer accidentally fired the fatal shot in the confusion of the gunfight.
- Ferrer’s attorney says he had a valid license to carry and will challenge the charge as inappropriate, arguing Ferrer acted in self-defense, and prosecutors cast the case as an example of the danger of illegal guns and crossfire.