Man Hits Cop With A Rock, Steals His Gun Before Killing Him And A Bystander, Police Say

A Massachusetts police officer and a bystander are dead after a suspect attacked the officer with a rock, stole his gun and shot him, then killed a woman while engaging in a running gun battle with police as he fled the scene, authorities say.

Weymouth police Officer Michael C. Chesna and the woman were both allegedly killed by 20-year-old Emanuel Lopes around 7:30 a.m. Sunday in Weymouth, a normally quiet suburb about 15 miles south of Boston, according to the Patriot Ledger, a newspaper based in nearby Quincy.

Lopes hit Chesna, 42, with a rock, got his gun, then shot him multiple times in the head and chest, a prosecutor told the newspaper. Chesna, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaves behind a wife and two children. Monday would have marked his sixth anniversary as a police officer.

Weymouth Police Chief Richard Grimes told the Patriot Ledger that Chesna was “a great family man and a great officer.”

It started with a 911 complaint about an erratic driver, Norfolk District Assistant District Attorney Gregory Connor said. When Chesna responded to the scene he saw a crashed white BMW and discovered that its driver, Lopes, had fled on foot.

Chesna found him throwing rocks at a nearby home, drew his weapon and confronted Lopes, according to Connor.

“He exited his vehicle, he drew his firearm, and commanded this man to stop,” Connor said.“Lopes then attacked Officer Chesna, it is believed with a large stone, striking him in the head. Officer Chesna fell to the ground. Lopes then retrieved Officer Chesna’s firearm and then discharged it several times in his head and chest.”

Another officer drove up and saw Lopes standing over Chesna’s body, gun in hand, according to the Boston Globe. That officer drew his own gun and fired through the windshield of his vehicle, striking Lopes in the leg. But Lopes took off running, and while being chased, shot at police.

Two of those rounds went through a sliding glass door, killing 77-year-old Vera Adams, according to the Globe. 

Lopes was arrested in October 2017 for allegedly selling cocaine to minors after cops found him partying in an abandoned beach house with six teens. When they tried to search Lopes, he fled, dropping a backpack allegedly containing half-an-ounce of cocaine and a digital scale, according to the Patriot Ledger.

A report from the incident quoted police as saying officers had “fought with him before.”

Lopes will be arraigned in court on Tuesday.

[Photo: Weymouth Police Department]