Gunman lost his son in Holyoke shooting

CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) - We're learning more about the suspect who shot a state trooper, resulting in a two hour stand-off that ended in his own death in Chicopee, Friday.

22News talked to Carlos Laguer's ex-wife.               

The morning after a two hour long stand-off in Chicopee passersby got a glimpse at the house that was at the center of it all.

For Matt Hastings, who lives near the home, it made it all real. "It felt a little more like a movie to me, it didn't feel real. You know, especially until this morning when I finally saw the bullet holes and everything. I just heard talk about it at work," Hastings said.

Police say 41-year-old Carlos Laguer of Springfield opened fire on West Street Friday morning, shooting at anything in sight, including Massachusetts State Police Trooper John Vasquez who took at least two bullets.  Luckily, he's ok.

At 7:45 Friday morning when this shooting started there were a number of people here as there typically are, there were people filling up their gas tanks here, they were grabbing a cup of coffee and witnesses here say, no one was safe.

"I just saw him shooting recklessly at buses, anything that passed by, so it was really unreal," said Desean Martinez, Chicopee.

To the community, an unstable gunman was on the loose, to Migdalia Rios, it was her ex-husband, making a terrible mistake. "Why would he fire so many bullets in a busy neighborhood? I don't know, I don't have a clue, he was angry, for the loss of my son," Rios said.

Rios, who didn't want her full face shown, had three children with Laguer.

His 16-year-old son, Jean Carlos Laguer, was shot and killed in Holyoke back in September of 2010.

Rios says their son's death was a family tragedy Laguer never recovered from.

She says that combined with an unhealthy relationship with a girlfriend, who lived in the West Street home, and had a restraining order against him, sent him over the top, resulting in this massive shooting spree, that ended when Laguer himself was found dead.

"This could have been a disaster of incredible proportions. There were many children in harms way, customers at the convenience store," Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette said Friday.

While it's a tragedy for Rios and her family, law enforcement call it a miracle, he was the only death in the shooting spree that put dozens of people, including children, in harms way.