New Bedford man arrested after Taunton resident shot during armed home invasion

TAUNTON — Chief Edward Walsh reports that the Taunton Police Department arrested a New Bedford man after a resident was shot during an armed home invasion late Friday evening.

At 10:00 p.m., Taunton Police responded to a home on Newcomb Place after 911 dispatches received a call from a cellphone around that location with a person screaming on the line. As two police officers arrived at a multi-unit house, dispatchers informed them that they had received reports of a firearm involved in an ongoing disturbance. Additional backup units were dispatched to the scene.

Officers announced their presence outside the home in question and a woman answered the door and allowed the officers to enter a second-floor apartment. Inside, they found two men struggling on the ground, with one man on top of the other. Noting the report of the presence of a firearm and fearing for their own safety and the safety of those around them, the officers unholstered their firearms and pointed them at the two men, ordering them to cease their struggle on the ground.

The men complied, and officers immediately noted that one of the two was suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the leg. The officers called for an emergency medical response.

The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Joshua Manuel Deleon, was also injured, suffering head trauma and other injuries during the altercation. A firearm was found near his person, and officers noted that he was wearing body armor. Officers later found two additional firearms as well as three bullet casings from the floor.

Police noted that, based on apparent bullet holes, an apartment above, on the third floor, may have been fired into during the struggle. Officers met with a woman who lives on the third floor and ascertained that she — and her four children inside the apartment — were frightened but not injured.

Deleon was transported to a local hospital before being transferred by medical helicopter to a Boston Hospital, where he is being treated, in police custody, for serious injuries sustained in the altercation. The other male, who was shot, was taken to a different hospital where he was being treated overnight and is expected to recover.

The two men are known to each other, and that this incident was not a random act of violence. It is believed that the conflict originated in a different community and spilled over to Taunton.

Deleon was arrested and charged with Assault and Battery with a Dangerous Weapon, Assault and Battery, Assault with a Dangerous Weapon, Armed Assault with Intent to Murder, Possession of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony, Home Invasion, Possession of Ammunition without a FID Card, Use of Body Armor in the Commission of a Felony, Possession of a Firearm with a Defaced Serial Number, and Discharge of a Firearm within 500 Feet of a Dwelling.

The Taunton Fire Department responded to the scene and provided emergency medical services.