Risky Business

Man proposes, shot dead

by tony lee / metro boston

AUG 31, 2006

SOMERVILLE — Authorities are investigating a Linden Street shooting that took the life of a Worcester man who, according to area residents, had been engaged for just one hour before being killed in front of his fiancé yesterday morning.

The neighbors said Bernard Johnson, 22, had just returned from visiting family in Alabama before proposing to his girlfriend, who then rushed the couple to her cousin’s apartment to spread the news.

Upon leaving the cousin’s apartment, Johnson was approached in a parking lot by Valentino Facey, 21, of Cambridge, according to the Middlesex district attorney’s office. Facey allegedly robbed Johnson of a gold chain at gunpoint and, after a brief scuffle, took off, only to return moments later with three other men.

One of the men shot Johnson several times before all four fled, the DA’s office said. The gunman remains at-large, but Facey was arraigned yesterday in Somerville District Court on charges of armed robbery and illegal possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty and is being held on $50,000 bail.

See I told you that getting engaged was risky.