Monday at 11:00 a.m., Xavier Bautista’s family and friends gathered at Saint Mary of the Annunciation Parish on Norfolk St. for his funeral. Two hours prior, Rayquon Brown, a 29-year-old resident of Canton, was arraigned at the Cambridge District Court and charged with the murder of Bautista in Cambridge on July 4. Brown was also charged with “carrying a firearm without a license, being an armed career criminal and conspiring to commit murder,” according to a press release from the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office.
According to an autopsy, Bautista died from two gunshot wounds, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan and acting Cambridge Police Commissioner Pauline Wells said in a statement.
The statement said Bautista left home at around 4:00 a.m. and was wearing navy-blue Cambridge Department of Public Works work attire. Video footage shows he was “confronted by multiple men wearing masks who shot and killed him. The parties and the defendant then fled the scene in a white Dodge Ram pickup truck.”
The statement said Brown acted as a lookout and was a potential backup, holding an object the police said appeared to be a firearm and at one point holding it out “as if aiming it.”
The statement said there was no known connection between Bautista and the defendant, and the motive was still being investigated.
Brown has an extensive criminal history. He has faced paternity suits in family court multiple times and has been previously arrested for violent and drug-related crimes, according to Massachusetts court records.
In July of 2018, he pled guilty to three concurrent two-year charges for assault and battery on a pregnant person and assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest from March of 2017. The next month, he pled guilty to two additional assault and battery charges from earlier that year, one causing serious bodily harm and the other with a violent weapon. He was also accused of assault to maim.
Later, in October 2018, he was indicted for cocaine trafficking, planning to distribute cocaine, assault and battery of a police officer, and several traffic violations in police pursuit.
In May of 2020, Brown was charged for trafficking fentanyl and assault and battery on a police officer. He was sentenced to a concurrent 3 years and 6 months in prison for the fentanyl and 3 years probation for the assault and battery. He served his prison sentence for less than one month at MCI Walpole. He violated his probation several times. In October 2023, he had a hearing to end his probation and was released on personal recognizance. He was officially taken off probation in March 2024.
Cambridge police and the district attorney’s office said there was no further information at this time.
Support for Bautista’s family can be given though the SupportNow set up by Bautista’s fiancee Demetris Grimsley for their son.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
This story was updated to include information about Rayquon Brown’s criminal record.
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Another obvious violent criminal who we are letting walk free and kill again.