Emerson Street Shooting Marks Haverhill’s First Murder of 2018

(File photograph.)

A 40-year-old man was shot on Emerson Street over the weekend, marking Haverhill’s first murder of 2018. (File photograph)

The shooting death of a man on Haverhill’s Emerson Street Sunday marked the city’s first murder of 2018.

A 40-year-old man, identified Monday night as Jeffrey Larkin of Haverhill, sustained a gunshot wound to the chest in an incident near Emerson and Grand Streets on Sunday night shortly before 11 p.m. Haverhill police were alerted to the gunfire while dispatched to a call at 112 Emerson St. The victim died as a result of his injuries at Holy Family Hospital.

As previously reported by WHAV, the investigation into the incident is ongoing by police and officials at the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.

The weekend shooting death comes six months after Haverhill Police Chief Alan R. DeNaro said his team is “burning the candle at both ends” in an effort to eradicate gang activity across the city.

“We provide the services of a 140-man police department with 90 officers, because that’s what this community demands. That’s what we need to have the level of service we expect,” DeNaro said at the time.

This past January, a Haverhill man and Methuen woman were charged with attempted murder after the shooting of a 20-year-old man on Portland Street. The victim recovered from his injuries.

June 6 marks the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of 2017 Haverhill High graduate Bryce Finn, who was gunned down on the doorstep of his Rainbow Drive home in Bradford. Police have yet to identify a shooter or motive for the crime.

Also in 2017, Matthew Sabatino was stabbed over Memorial Day weekend in downtown Haverhill and later died of his injuries. Thirty-four-year-old Joseph Smith was gunned down in an unrelated incident on Portland Street in February 2017.