Police identify man killed in Woonsocket’s 2nd domestic violence homicide

WOONSOCKET, R.I. (WLNE) — Woonsocket police identified the man who they say died from an apparent gunshot injury to his head in a suspected attempted murder-suicide.

The shooting happened just after 2 a.m. Monday on Fairmount Street.

Chief Thomas Oates said a caller told officers that Walter Lopez, 52, shot his wife, 34, and then himself.

Oates said Lopez’s wife was shot in her right thigh. She was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where she remains in serious condition.

Neighbors in the area reported seeing police at the Fairmount Street home Sunday afternoon.

“It shocked me,” said Al Ladoux, the next-door neighbor of Lopez. “I was going to walk over there to talk to them, then I saw the police cars and said, ‘They got problems.’ It had to be related somehow.”

Police said two other people, a 3-year-old and 20-year-old, were inside the home at the time of the shooting. They were not injured.

According to the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, this incident is the second domestic-violence-related shooting to occur in Woonsocket this year.

No further information was immediately released.