Even as a South Boston father and son were being arraigned on murder charges, police continued to hunt for a third man they say also took part in the killing of Edwin Santos outside a Dorchester Street market yesterday.
At the arraignments today of Elias and Angel Sanchez, both of South Boston, Suffolk County prosecutors said the three men started stabbing Edwin Santos around 5 p.m. and then kept stabbing him until they finally got tired and he lay there dying, from stab wounds to the stomach and a "gaping laceration across the top of his head."
Elias Sanchez, 43, was arraigned in a bed at Boston Medical Center, where he is recuperating from his own stab wounds, inflicted, prosecutors say, by a friend of Santos, who vainly tried to defend him from the three-person knife attack. Angel, 16, was arraigned earlier in the day. Both were ordered held without bail.
The DA's office provided this account:
[Assistant DA Mark] Zanini told the court that Santos was standing in front of a Dorchester Street market with a female friend just before 5:00 p.m. when Elias Sanchez approached him and began assaulting him with a club or baton. Within seconds, Zanini said, Angel Sanchez joined in, opening a knife and using it to stab Santos repeatedly.
A third man then joined the attack and investigators believe he, too, stabbed Santos. That man’s identity remains under investigation.
As Santos backed away from the three armed assailants and attempted to ward off the onslaught, his female friend attempted to defend him, first by trying to pull the attackers off of him and then by using a knife with which she had armed herself. Despite her efforts, however, the three men continued to beat and stab Santos "until the attackers tired of it," Zanini said.
Police didn't have to travel far to find the father and son - both live on E. 9 Street, around the corner from the market.
Innocent, etc.