17-year-old Dighton boy fatally shot, DA release states

DIGHTON — Dighton and State Police are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred in town on Tuesday evening, according to a press release from the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.

According to the release, Dighton police responded to the home of 475 Forest St. at around 6:43 p.m. for a reported emergency of teen who was shot inside the home, the release states. They rushed the boy, 17, to Morton Hospital in Taunton where he was later pronounced dead.

The teen is not being identified until next of kin has been notified.

At the scene of the shooting at about 7:30 p.m., a Dighton police officer said he could not comment.

Three teenage boys in a pickup truck — who were turned away by police from getting near the house — said they are friends with the alleged victim, who they said attended classes at nearby Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School.

None of the boys would give their names.

According to police scanner reports, at one point police issued a “be on the lookout (BOLO)” for a white 2001 Chevy Monte Carlo with a loud exhaust that could be tied to the incident.

The vehicle was reported to have been seen in the area of town hall and Bristol County Agricultural High School, according to scanner reports, but a reporter who drove to the area was not able to find any police vehicles or officers.

A woman, who would not give her name and would not comment as to what she’d heard about the incident, said she is friends with the victim and family at the home.

“Just because you live out in the boonies doesn’t mean something (like this) can’t happen,” she said.

Doug White lives just a couple of houses away from the location.

White, 54, said he heard shouting at 5:30 p.m. coming from his neighbors’ house, possibly from outside where they keep an above-ground pool.

White said the victim, his mother and the mother’s live-in boyfriend moved in about two years ago into what had been a foreclosed property.

“They’ve been fixing it up,” he said.

White’s 16-year-old son, James, said he knows the teen who lives there. The two of them, in the past, he said, had played pick-up games of football behind White’s house.