Opinion ID: 203446
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Station House Interview

Text: Police took Brandao, after his arrest, to the Brockton police station for questioning in the early morning hours of May 15, 1999, directly following the Depina shooting. Once at the station house, Brandao asked for Massachusetts State Trooper John Duggan by name. Duggan had previously met with and questioned Brandao during the course of his investigation of the Fernandes murder. Brandao signed a waiver of his Miranda rights, and Duggan and Detective Mark Reardon of the Brockton Police Department began interrogating Brandao at 3:15am. Brandao appeared calm at first, but when Duggan told Brandao that the police had located the car used in the Fernandes shooting and had a witness who identified the people in the car, Brandao became visibly agitated. Brandao's eyes welled up and he put his head on the table. Brandao asked Duggan, Is that the car that was in the paper? Early media accounts of the Fernandes murder had reported that the shooters drove a red Honda. When the police later learned that the car was in fact a red Dodge, they withheld that information from the press to test suspects' knowledge. When Duggan answered Brandao that it was not the car in the papers, Brandao again put his head on the table. Brandao asked Duggan, What am I looking at, twenty-five to life? I can't do -8- that time. Even if I tell you what happened, I'm still looking at time. When Duggan mentioned Gus Lopes in connection with the Fernandes shooting, Brandao replied, I guess there's nothing left for me to do. He then said that he would tell Duggan the details of the whole story at some point, although he never did. In July 2000, after years of orchestrating gang warfare, Gus Lopes was arrested when he attempted to buy guns from an undercover police officer. Lopes agreed to cooperate in the government's prosecution of fellow Stonehurst members in exchange for a reduced sentence on the firearms charge.