Suspect in East Boston officer shooting identified

EAST BOSTON — Neighbors describe the man accused of shooting two officers in East Boston as a 'wannabe cop.'

Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans told FOX25 Kirk Figueroa is the man responsible.

The incident began around 10:51 p.m. Wednesday t 136 Gladstone St. when officers responded to a home for a domestic call. Within 15 minutes, there were reports of an officer shot. Two officers were shot and taken to the hospital with critical injuries and nine more were injured in what Mayor Marty Walsh described as a "gun fight." Figueroa, 33, was shot and killed.

Commissioner William Evans says Figueroa was wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle. He did not have a license for that gun, said Evans. He did have a license to carry in Florida, but that expired in February.

FOX25 has learned Figueroa was charged with reckless driving in Georgia in 2006. Four years later he pleaded guilty to damaging his own car by means of fire and unlawfully representing himself to be a private detective in Georgia.

According to a website, Figueroa was the founder of a private security firm.

On that website, Figueroa’s biography states he spent eight years with the Army Reserve’s military police battalion.

It also says he’s been a bounty hunter, corrections officer and earned degrees as a private investigator, living in various places across the country, including Florida, California, West Virginia and in Boston. He was recently a city constable, and was honored in July.

An acquaintance of Kirk Figueroa told FOX25 that he would travel back and forth from New York. Figueroa was trying to expand his business in the Boston area. One neighbor thought he was an officer.

"A wannabe cop car, it had constable written all over it," said Steven Buttiglieri.

Public records show Figueroa lived at the Gladstone Street address.

Neighbors told FOX25 that Figueroa was quiet, but he would see him around the neighborhood.

Another neighbor who witnessed the shoot-out said the domestic incident started with an argument about heating.

On Facebook, Figueroa went by the name Xocoa Xango. The page had posts that included translations of the Koran and articles about police involved shootings.

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