BOSTON, March 16, 2015—The man who allegedly pulled a gun on rivals and set in motion the shooting that killed 26-year-old Dawnn Jaffier last summer was formally charged with her murder today, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

WESSON COLAS (D.O.B. 5/25/92) of Dorchester was indicted Friday and arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court today on charges of first-degree murder, armed assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. At the request of Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson ordered him held without bail.

Lee, the deputy chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, told the court that the confrontation that ended with Jaffier’s Aug. 23 death and the non-fatal shooting of another woman began inside a store on Blue Hill Avenue near McLellan Street along the J’ouvert parade route of Boston’s Caribbean Festival.

Colas entered that store along with several associates and engaged in a “stare-down” with other patrons in the store – including a group of which KEITH WILLIAMS (D.O.B. 7/13/96) was a part.

The tension inside the store continued outside, Lee said, where Colas “produced a handgun and began to raise it at the other group.” At that time, prosecutors say, Williams raised a .357 caliber revolver and fired it repeatedly at Colas.

Williams missed his target and instead hit Jaffier, who was a block south near the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Charlotte Street, and another young woman about three blocks south at American Legion Highway.

Jaffier was struck in the head and died of her injuries. The second victim, age 20, was struck in the leg and survived.

Though he is not accused of firing either of those shots, Colas was indicted on a theory of murder adopted by the Supreme Judicial Court’s 1997 decision in Commonwealth v. Felix Santiago, which held that “Where the defendant chooses to engage in a gun battle with another with the intent to kill or do grievous bodily harm and a third party is killed, the defendant may be held liable for the homicide even if it was the defendant’s opponent who fired the fatal shot.”

Williams and his group fled the scene and allegedly hid the murder weapon on nearby Drummond Street. He was aided by JORDAN REED (D.O.B. 9/5/92) of Randolph, who was indicted Friday as an accessory after the fact to Jaffier’s murder. Reed is currently incarcerated in Essex County and will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court at a later date.

Timothy Munzert is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Colas is represented by attorney Peter Marano. He will return to court on April 9.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.