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Man Posed As UPS Driver To Shoot School Nurse With Gun Hidden In Package, Prosecutors Say
Robert Bonang had moved out the neighborhood five years earlier following a number of reported issues with neighbors.
A Massachusetts man is accused of posing as a UPS delivery person so he could ambush his former neighbor with a rifle hidden in a package he was carrying.
Robert Bonang, 61, of Marshfield returned to the Braintree street where he once lived on Wednesday to allegedly kill his former neighbor Laurie Melchionda, 59. He allegedly rang her doorbell shortly before noon, wearing a wig and dressed up like a UPS driver with a delivery box, the Boston Globe reported.
Bonang had concealed a rifle within the cardboard box — which he used to shoot Melchionda several times with after she opened the door, officials say.
"At the opposite end of the box, [a hole] allowed someone to place their hand inside the box to manipulate the trigger," Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor said Thursday morning as Bonang was charged with murder, Patch reported.
Following the shooting, Melchionda was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead, the Boston Herald reported. The district attorney’s office called the shooting a “targeted event” but a motive has not been released, according to that report.
Dan Quirk, 33, grew up next door to Melchionda, who was also his school nurse. He told the Boston Herald that Melchionda often told his grandmother that Bonang made her uncomfortable. Bonang and Melchionda had a host of issues in the past, according to CBS Boston.
Bonang also had a history of wrongly believing neighbors were following him around, according to court records obtained by the Boston Globe. Bonang moved away from the neighborhood in 2015.
“But why, five years later would he come back and do this?” Quirk asked the Boston Herald.
He called his former neighbor and school nurse “an extremely nice, genuine person.”
Melchionda was a school nurse at Weston Public Schools for 20 years and the director of their board of health. She leaves behind a husband and three adult children.
“We are reeling from this shocking and devastating news,” Weston Public Schools Superintendent Midge Connolly said in a statement obtained by the Boston Herald.
Bonang is being held without bail. It’s not clear if he has an attorney available to comment. He’s due back in court on July 17.
