Man sentenced to prison after shooting 15-year-old girl at Massachusetts mall

A man who opened fire inside Braintree’s South Shore Plaza on July 3, 2020, shooting a 15-year-old girl bystander in the chest and hand before fleeing, admitted his guilt to all of the indictments against him in Norfolk Superior Court yesterday, according to Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.

“Jose Rodriguez admitted his guilt to armed assault to murder, possession of a large capacity firearm, and numerous other assault and firearms charges before Judge Douglas H. Wilkins yesterday, (January 3, 2022),” District Attorney Morrissey said. “Assistant District Attorney Anne Yas asked Judge Wilkins to impose a seven-to-ten-year sentence followed by three years of probation; defense attorney Patrick Kelly recommended the statutory minimum of 5 years.”

Judge Wilkins imposed a sentence of 8 years on Rodriguez, who was 21 at the time and is now 22, followed by three years of probation supervision with conditions that Rodriguez not possess any firearms, submit to random drug testing to assure abstinence, maintain employment or enrollment in school, stay away from the South Shore Plaza and have no contact with the victim or anyone who testified at the Grand Jury. He will also be subject to GPS monitoring with a curfew of 8 p.m. to 5:45 a.m. for the first year of his probation, according to DA Morrissey.

“This was an outrageously reckless and dangerous act,” DA Morrissey said. “This defendant punched a woman in line at a store, causing an altercation between parties. He stepped away, retrieved the loaded firearm he was carrying and fired six times in the thick of the mall.”

The defendant then fled the area, threw the gun, and was eventually tracked using a police K-9 and placed under arrest. “It is only a matter of luck that the innocent girl who was shot, or any number of others in the area at the time, were not killed by these actions,” Morrissey said.