Two shot to death on Grafton Street in Worcester

WORCESTER — Two people were killed in an early morning shooting on Grafton Street.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting at 2 a.m. Wednesday came upon two wounded men on a sidewalk in front of the Diamond Inn, a lounge at 271 Grafton St.

The victims were rushed to a hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to Worcester police.

Police did not indicate that any arrests were made.

Detectives remained at the scene into the morning, with Grafton Street blocked to traffic for several hours. A vehicle was towed from the scene.

The road was open to traffic by the morning commute.

More: Worcester homicides: Killings in city down over past two years

The Diamond Inn is a neighborhood bar on the lower part of Grafton Street. There are apartments attached to the business.

A resident of the third floor said he woke up when he heard eight or nine gunshots, looked out and saw two lifeless men down on the sidewalk.

"What I saw from my window was the guys dead on the floor," he said, adding that police checked on all the apartment tenants above the bar to make sure none of them were hit with any stray bullets.

Another resident, who lives on the first floor above the Diamond Inn, said he was awoken by his roommate who heard multiple gunshots.

He saw the two victims sprawled out on the sidewalk.

"The kids were laying on the sidewalk and one of them was shot in the head," he said outside of the bar hours later, just a few feet from where the incident happened. "They were lifeless. They were laying on the sidewalk, side by side, both of them on the ground, and they were not moving at all, not at all."

He said he saw an EMT trying to resuscitate one of the victims.

"They carried him (one of the victims) on a gurney," he said. "There was an EMT on top him, pumping his chest, pumping his chest, trying to keep him alive."

Around 8 a.m., four distraught women who said they were relatives of the victims did their best to wash away any remnants of blood that stained the sidewalk. Soon afterwards, a worker from the bar came out with a mop and detergent to finish the job.

Police detectives and forensic experts, wearing latex gloves and plastic boot coverings, went into the establishment and, an hour and so later, reemerged with a dozen paper bags of potential sealed evidence that was placed in the trunk and the back seat of two different vehicles.

The bar typically opens at 8 a.m. On Wednesday, customers weren't allowed in until 10:30 a.m.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester police investigate overnight shooting on Grafton Street