BOSTON, April 30 (UPI) -- A 23-year-old Army veteran, recently back from Afghanistan, was shot and killed on a Boston street, police said.
Stephen Perez Jr., of Revere, Mass., died in Tufts Medical Center after being shot in the back in Boston's violence-wracked Theater District early Saturday, police said.
"At that time of night, it's very busy," Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said of the neighborhood.
She said investigators were seeking leads and suspect an altercation preceded the shooting.
Perez was an Army sniper who returned home to take classes at Bunker Hill Community College, aspiring to become a police officer, the Boston Herald reported Monday.
"He was a good kid. He wasn't a troublemaker. Just to die like that is senseless," Perez's aunt, Patrice Bordonaro, said.
The Theater District has developed a reputation for violence, the newspaper said, mentioning a wild shootout in November that left four people wounded.
