Freshman basketball player shot and killed week before collegiate debut, MA cops say
Just a week before a freshman basketball player was to tip off his first college season, he was shot and killed, Massachusetts police say.
Carl-Hens Beliard, an 18-year-old student-athlete at Salem State University, died after being found in a car with gunshot wounds, according to a Nov. 1 Essex County District Attorney’s Office news release. An arrest was made the same day in connection to Beliard’s death.
Now family, friends and community members are mourning the student who helped lead his high school basketball team to a Division 1 state championship — the first public school from Worchester to do so, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
At about 1:24 a.m. on Nov. 1, the Salem Police Department received a report of a shooting, and when officers arrived at the location, they discovered Beliard shot in a car, according to officials. After he was taken to Salem Hospital, the college student was pronounced dead, officials said.
In the initial investigation, officials determined that Beliard’s death didn’t seem “to be a random act of violence.”
“This senseless gun violence is tragic not only for the victim’s family but for the SSU community and beyond,” Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said in the release.
Later that night, Salem police arrested 18-year-old Missael Pena Canela in connection to Beliard’s death, another news release from the district attorney’s office said. He was charged with murder, officials said.
“This tragedy continues to be an active and ongoing investigation,” Salem State President John D. Keenan said in a Nov. 1 release. “This has been a tremendously difficult day for our entire campus community and for those that knew Carl best.”
Prior to the arrest, Keenan put out a separate message to the campus community on Beliard’s death, saying counselors would be available to those who needed them.
“As both the Salem State president and a college dad, this tragedy is heartbreaking for all in our community and every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said in the Essex County District Attorney news release.
Beliard was passionate about basketball since he was 2 years old, his mother, Altagrace Beliard, said as reported by WHDH. He always wanted to be a basketball star, she said.
His high school basketball coach, Al Pettway, recalled during a Nov. 1 news conference how the team had felt like a family that would “stick together” when Beliard, the only senior at the time, was there. Their jerseys had the word “family” written on the back, he said.
Pettway stayed in touch with Beliard throughout his journey to Salem State, which was the 18-year-old’s top choice of schools, his coach said. They had spoken a month before the shooting, Pettway said.
Beliard was a “very ambitious young man,” Pettway said, who always wanted to come back to his hometown to take care of his mom after college.
“We lost a really good one,” he said during the news conference.
The first game of the Salem State Vikings 2023-2024 basketball season is Nov. 8 at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire.
A vigil for Beliard was scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 2 in Salem State’s Twohig Gymnasium, according to Salem State’s website.
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