TAUNTON, Mass., June 9 -- A Massachusetts mother of five was shot to death on a dare as she played in a crowded park with her 2-year-old grandson, a report said Friday.
Lisa Costa, 40, died Wednesday night after being struck in the chest by a single shot fired from about 150 feet away where four teenage boys were allegedly drinking beer and playing with a stolen rifle.
One of the youths, George Powers, 16, was later arrested and charged with murder for firing the fatal shot.
"They (the other teenagers) dared him to do it," Costa's friend, Elizabeth Masiello, said in Friday's Boston Herald. "It makes it even worse, knowing there wasn't a reason."
Costa was playing with her grandson and two of her five daughters in Memorial Park near her Taunton, Mass., home when she was felled by the bullet. Witnesses told police they saw her fall and call for help.
Taunton DPW worker Peter Rodriguez, also a friend of the victim, said that when Costa saw blood on her chest, "She yelled to one of the kids to go call 911."
Police said it was the accused shooter who called 911.
"After he fired the fatal shot, he ran over to the victim," Taunton Police Chief David Westcoat said.
Westcoat said the four youths were firing a stolen .22-caliber rifle into a pond at the park when Powers turned the weapon on Costa. Westcoat said Costa then told his buddies, '"Now I'm going to shoot at someone in the park.'"
"It was a random, senseless act of violence," Westcoat said. "There is no doubt in our mind that this was not an accident."
Powers, a Taunton High School dropout, was arraigned as an adult Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder and ordered held without bail.
At the arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Chris Markey said witnesses were "absolutely consistent"that Powers was the shooter.
"He put the gun up on his shoulder, looked through the scope and shot her," Markey said.
Powers' attorney, Francis O'Boy, however, denied that, saying the other three teens were framing his client.
"The other three were best friends and he was the outsider so they blamed him," O'Boy said. "They concocted a story to implicate him and take the burden off themselves."
Powers was also charged with breaking and entering in connection with the theft of the rifle from an area home. Also charged with that crime was Nicholas Hutchins, 17. Authorities said they are considering charges against the other two youths.
Rita Savoy, whose son is the father of Costa's children, said in Friday's Boston Globe that Costa was "a typical grandmother, a good grandmother."
"One day she's fine," Savoy said. "It's hard to understand this crazy world."
