The accused killer was himself shot and killed during a robbery in the Dominican Republic in 2006, the Bristol County DA said.
A 32-year-old cold case in New Bedford has been solved, but the man identified as the killer was shot and killed during a robbery in 2006, the Bristol County District Attorney announced Monday.
In 1991, 20-year-old Brent Davis was shot and killed at the Brickenwood Housing Project in New Bedford, DA Thomas M. Quinn said in a press release. He was from Newport, R.I., where his mother still lives.
At the time, investigators were able to create a sketch of their suspect, named “Bobby,” who had relatives in New Bedford. These relatives identified Bobby as Reynaldo Suriel from New York City, but all trails to the suspect ran cold, the DA said.
About 30 years later, a Massachusetts State Police Trooper assigned to the Bristol County DA’s office continued the investigation and, in 2020, determined that Suriel was an alias. The trooper interviewed witnesses from the 1991 investigation again, who shared that the shooting was due to a drug dispute and that Bobby fled to the Dominican Republic after the murder, the DA said.