Grand Jury Indicts Man Who Shot Haverhill, Sandown Women in March

Essex County District Attorney Johnathan W. Blodgett.

A man, who allegedly shot women from Haverhill and Sandown, N.H., during a drive-by shooting back in March in Lawrence, has been indicted on assault and firearms charges by an Essex County Grand Jury.

Brian Brito, 22, of Manchester, N.H., and North Andover, was indicted on two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, causing serious bodily injury; two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and carrying a firearm without a license, according to Essex County District Attorney Johnathan W. Blodgett’s office. Brito, who was not identified as a suspect in March, was already being held without bail on a Lynn murder and North Andover aggravated rape charges.

As WHAV first reported in March, two women—a 19-year-old from Haverhill and a 20-year-old from Sandown, N.H.—received serious injuries after a drive-by shooting in Lawrence. The Haverhill woman was shot once in the head and airlifted to a Boston hospital, while the other was shot in the leg and taken to a local hospital by ambulance, according to Lawrence Police Chief James Fitzpatrick. At the time, police said a man, wearing a ski mask and gray hooded sweatshirt and driving a silver BMW four-door sedan, pulled up to a parked car with the women inside and opened fire. Detectives did not consider the incident a random act of violence. Methuen police also responded once the women fled into that city.

Brito is also accused of shooting and killing a food delivery man on Bowler Street in Lynn, robbing a North Andover convenience store and raping a store clerk March 27, two days after the shooting.  He was indicted in May for murder, two counts of aggravated rape, kidnapping, armed and masked robbery, carrying a firearm without a license and possession of ammunition.

Brito will be arraigned on the new charges at his next court appearance Aug. 10.

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