On April 3rd, 2001 my son Justin Ronchetti was shot and killed by a Boston City undercover police officer. My son was 21 years old...and my only child. My son had a drug addiction problem and had been struggling with it for almost a year. I'm getting no answers from the police department. Actually, they're pretty useless and extremely insensitive to my loss.

Some of you might remember this incident. It happened on Friend Street, just down the street from the Fleet Center. I'm not sure why my son was there...I can only speculate that he was there to feed his addiction. He was a good kid with a good heart...just had an addiction problem.

The police, without all the relevant facts, said to me over the phone when I inquired about my son's death that he used his car as a weapon. You see, somehow the 25 year old police officer wound up on the hood of my son's car. The police officer, again he was undercover, held on to the sunroof with two hands. Somehow he freed up one of his hands to pull his weapon out to fire two rounds through the open sunroof. The reason, according to the press, was the officer had no choice.

My son was unarmed! He had two known drug dealings in his car who were also unarmed and fled the car once the shooting started. He was shot and killed for 8 bags of herion that had a street value of $40.00, yes, forty-dollars. Something is terribly wrong with this situation...the press characterized this as a "wild drug chase."

The passengers were arrainged on minor charges and later released. The media informed me of the arraignment and mentioned that deadly force didn't sound justified.

Now, I have no son and have many unanswered questions...the police, The Mayor, The Governor haven't responded to my letters. All I'm trying to understand is why was deadly force necessary and why was hereoic police action necessary for $40 dollars worth of drugs.

I'm shocked by the outrageous and unprofessionalism actions of the Boston Police department. I'm terribly disappointed with the fact that the Mayor or the Governor has answered my letters. As a parent and a taxpayer I think I have the right to understand a very basic question: Why did my son have to lose his life in this incident?

If you or anyone who reads this has any thoughts, advice, suggestions, please don't hesitate to answer this...I need all the support I can get.

Regards,

Lonely Dad