![The Wayland residents who volunteer to coach baseball try to make the environment fun and uplifting for players. “[I try] to build the kids up,” Co-Commissioner and coach for a Minors team Alex Ahmed said. “If someone strikes out, you encourage them, [and] say that [they] get another chance, [or they] could try again next time.”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/unnamed-1200x801.png)
![On Thursday Oct. 10, football will face rival Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, aiming to improve their record to 4-1. “[LSRHS] has gotten the best of us over the last couple of years,” Parseghian said. “I feel that this team is willing to correct the last couple of years and, and get a [win]. I want to win a football game.”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Screenshot-2024-10-08-at-12.53.35 PM-1200x801.png)
![A Wayland football player carries the football down the field. “We've cruised through the first three games,” head coach Scott Parseghian said. “[It’s a] combination of us being a good team and also the competition may not be as great as I had hoped.”](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/IMG_8114-1200x800.jpg)
On Saturday, April 20, the body of a man was discovered near the dumpster behind Hot Table Panini, a sandwich shop located in Framingham’s Shoppers World. The Framingham Police Department (FPD) labeled the incident as an apparent homicide. On Tuesday, April 23, the FPD identified the victim as 30-year-old Hot Table employee Anthony Junior Lopez.
On Saturday, April 20, FPD officials responded to a call informing them of a “deceased male party in the trash area behind [Hot Table Panini],” at approximately 10 p.m.. Since the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner deemed the cause of his death to be “obvious trauma to the body,” the death is being investigated as a homicide. The investigation is being conducted and led by members of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, including Massachusetts State Police Detectives and the FPD.
In an interview, Lopez’s ex-girlfriend Monica Thompson described Lopez as “always a hard worker” and a “great dad” to their one-year-old son.
“I still have love for him,” Thompson said in the interview. “It’s just not okay for him to go out this way. He’s so young. He’s only 30-years-old. It’s very hard, very hard. [I] just hope somebody, even if it’s somebody anonymously, says something and gets justice for him.”
Lopez’s sister, Christina Caraballo, organized a GoFundMe, where she described her late brother as a goofy, loving and outgoing person.
“He [is] leaving behind a son that he loved so much,” Caraballo said on the GoFundMe page. “He had a beautiful smile that lit up the room. My baby brother was the joy in our hearts, he was such a beautiful person in and out.”
Being about a 10 minute drive away from Wayland High School, Framingham’s Shopper’s World is a popular location for some Wayland community members to shop and get food.
“It is scary to me that this can happen in a community like [Framingham],” a Shopper’s World patron who requested to remain anonymous said. “I have eaten at Hot Table Panini numerous times, and while I didn’t know specifically who [Lopez] was, I imagine I have been served by him at some point. It is such a sad and scary situation. The idea that whoever did this is still out here and could just be walking around, with nobody knowing [that they murdered Lopez] scares me. I hope the Framingham and [Massachusetts] State Police can find who did this. It is such a sad and tragic event to happen to our community.”
Hot Table Panini declined WSPN’s request for comment.
The Framingham Police Department could not provide WSPN with information due to the ongoing investigation. However, they encourage anyone with any potential leads or tips regarding the homicide to call them at 508-532-5923.
