Racial Slurs Hurled Before Fatal Belmont Hit-And-Run: DA

BELMONT, MA — A fatal road rage crash in Belmont on Tuesday may have been fueled by racist slurs, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Dean Kapsalis, 54 of Hudson was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a civil rights violation causing injury and leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury, according to the DA's office.

Kapsalis is accused of yelling racial slurs at Henry Tapia, a 35-year-old Black and Latino man from Boston, during a heated road rage confrontation and then hitting Tapia with his red pickup truck and leaving the scene.

The car crash was reported on Tuesday afternoon on Upland Road in Belmont. Witnesses told police they heard the two men arguing in the road, outside their cars, before Tapia walked back to his car. Kapsalis is then accused of getting into his pickup truck and intentionally hitting Tapia, who was still outside his car, and dragging him a short distance before driving away.

When police got to the scene they found Tapia with life-threatening injuries, lying in the road near the driver’s side of his car, according to the DA's office.

First responders gave Tapia medical attention on scene for 17 minutes before he was rushed to the hospital, where he died. Tapia was not immediately rushed to the hospital because it is practice to stabilize the victims before moving them, Ryan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Kapsalis turned himself in to the Belmont Police Department a half hour after the incident happened, according to the DA's office. Ryan said more charges could come. Hate crime charges bring a 10-year sentence.

While both men have addresses outside of Belmont, they each have family in the area. Ryan said one of the men had family in the Upland Road area. Other than familial connections to Belmont, Ryan said the two men were strangers who had an unfortunate meeting in traffic during a road rage confrontation.

Tapia’s mother, Miostis Morel told The Boston Globe that her son lived in Belmont with his girlfriend and was returning home from work. Tapia was a father of three children.

Ryan said while the family is asking for privacy, the Belmont community is organizing to support them.

The incident is still under investigation.