Falsely Accused's Mother: 'This Could've Been So Bad'

WOBURN, MA — The mother of a man falsely accused of shooting someone in the neck said in an interview with Patch Friday that authorities should have acted quicker to hold the actual shooter accountable for falsely incriminating her son.

“This kid lied to the police. He committed a crime, tried to cover it up and then tried to finger a Black boy,” said Sharla Aleo of Woburn, whose son was falsely accused in what was later determined to be an accidental shooting.

Alec Braz, 22 of Woburn, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon shortly after his friend Jemil Evans, 19, was shot in the neck June 12.

But Braz, who is white, first told the police that it was a Black man he knew from Woburn who was the shooter, officials said. He gave the person's name and a "specific description of the clothing," officials said.

The lie prompted police to interview the teen Braz named — 18-year-old Giovanni Aleo — outside his home, with his family, friends and neighbors looking on.

Woburn Police Chief Robert Rufo said they realized Braz had told police a "false story" and they brought charges related to the shooting. But Rufo initially said they would not charge Braz in connection to trying to mislead police because he didn’t perpetuate the story.

That shocked Aleo’s mother, Sharla Aleo of Woburn.

"My concern is that Woburn police didn't feel it was necessary," Aleo said. "To me, I feel, that was doing a disservice to the community.”

Patch reached out to Rufo for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

The day of the shooting

Aleo described police coming to her house on June 12, the day of the shooting, around 3 p.m. Multiple police cars stationed themselves outside the house, she said, while her son was at home with some friends. Everyone noticed, but no one seemed to know why the police were there. Around 4 p.m., Giovanni and his friends decided to go to the pool, she said.

"Immediately upon walking out of the house, the police officers start taking photographs and coming toward them," she said.

Aleo came outside to see what was going on, and police told her Giovanni "matched the description of the suspect."

"I was beside myself," she said. "I knew my son had nothing to do with it — he'd been home all day."

After the interview outside, she learned that her son had been specifically accused. Aleo called the police to ask what the next steps would be and whether Braz would be held accountable for pointing his finger at her son falsely.

"To this day, I haven't heard anything from the police with regard to what they were planning on doing," Aleo said.

A call for accountability

Aleo reached out to the ACLU and NAACP, who told her to contact Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. Ryan, it turned out, was working on filing charges.

It was not until June 24 that Braz was indicted by a grand jury with "intimidation of a witness in connection with misleading police."

"The DA, she felt it was appropriate," Aleo said of holding Braz accountable for falsely accusing someone. "But my concern is that Woburn police didn't feel it was necessary."

The questioning was traumatic for the family, Aleo said. Her 9-year-old daughter watched her brother get questioned, and Aleo found her crying after. Giovanni told her that he wanted to leave Woburn after the incident.

"He said to me, ‘Mom I don't even like going outside now,’" Aleo said. "'If I see a police officer in the community, I don't want them even looking at me, thinking, that's the kid we thought shot Jemil Evans’."

Aleo said the police who came to the house handled it well.

"I don't feel they were in any way aggressive or combative," she said.

But it’s not lost on her that that could have turned out much different, she said.

"I think about it sometimes, what if when they came into my house that day, and they believed the kid's story. If they were really taking this really serious," Aleo said. "This could've been so bad. They could've handcuffed him, frisked him, thrown him in the back of a cruiser."

Aleo said she had no complaints with how the police handled the investigation. It's the aftermath that she takes issue with.

"The shooting might've been an innocent mistake, but the aftermath was not innocent. That was intentional, and that was malicious," Aleo said. "He's angry that he was brought into this. He feels that it was wrong. He has every right to be angry."

Aleo said she believes the police didn't want the bad publicity for the community connected to a Black man being falsely incriminated.

"But unfortunately, he was dragged into this," Aleo said. "People should know it happened."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.