Witness To Fatal Shooting In Winthrop, Massachusetts, Recounts What He Saw

On Saturday, authorities say 28-year-old white Winthrop resident Nathan Allen stole a box car and smashed it into another vehicle, leaving several injured before crashing it into a house. Paulo Correia, a witness to the scene, encountered the gunman moments before the shooting occurred.

Correia says he was with his 15-year-old son when a man in a white T-shirt approached Correia’s car and climbed into the back seat instructing him to drive. Believing Allen was injured and needed help, Correia asked the man to get out of the car and thought the man should get an ambulance.

“Then he said something which makes my blood run cold when I remember it. He says, ‘Don’t you think the world has gotten a little weird now?’ and I’m thinking to myself this kid definitely hit his head. He is not thinking straight. He needs help,” Correia recalls.

After Allen complied with Correia's request to get out of the vehicle, Correia says from the rearview mirror of his car, he witnessed Allen lift his T-shirt, grab a black handgun and shoot a pedestrian. The bystander shot was Ramona Cooper — the first of Allen’s two victims.

“I hear a pop — at this point I’m in immediate flight mode,” Correia says. “I’m maneuvering through the debris field on the road and I hear more pops behind me.”

The gunman walked down another block where he shot the second victim, David Green, who had been a resident of Winthrop his entire life.

Correia's son was in the front seat cowering. When Correia attempted to escape the crime scene, bystanders on the road yelled at him to stop. They assumed Correia was the getaway driver because the shooter had just exited his vehicle.

“I thank my lucky stars my son did not see the shooting,” he says. “As soon as I heard that first pop, immediately I knew we needed to get out here.”