Police responded to a report of shots fired on Kent Road at 11:50 p.m.
Updates a story posted at 8:32 a.m. Thursday.
SPRINGFIELD -- Police have identified the victim of a fatal overnight shooting on Kent Road as 29-year-old Brandon Sparks.
Brandon Sparks
Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William Fitchet, said police responded to a report of shots fired on Kent Road at 11:50 p.m. Officers found Sparks in the driver's seat of an Acura in the driveway of a duplex at 121 Kent Rd.
A man who answered the door at 121 Kent Road said he awoke to the sound of a vehicle crashing into his car, which was parked in the driveway.
"I was expecting a drunk driver," said the man, who declined to give his name
The man said he called 911 and when he went outside he saw the victim laying face down on the ground, with one of his legs still inside the car. Police, arriving on the scene, performed CPR on the victim. The man said he saw four bullet holes in the driver's side window and a fifth in the right rear window.
Sparks had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, Delaney said, and he was taken to Baystate Medical Center by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.
"Officers on the scene discovered a large amount of drugs inside the Acura along with money," Delaney wrote, adding that detectives determined the killing may be drug related.
A passenger inside the Acura at the time of the shooting ran into the woods but was eventually located and interviewed by investigators.
04.11.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- The shooting scene on Kent Road. Police said the incident began as the victim, Brandon Sparks, sat in a car in a driveway at right. After the shooting, Sparks crashed into a vehicle parked in a driveway of the home at left. Delaney said detectives, led by Capt. Thomas Trites, determined the Acura had been parked in a driveway at 123 Kent Rd. Investigators believe Sparks was waiting for someone to meet him there, Delaney said, as neither Sparks nor the passenger, who was not identified, live on Kent Road.
The passenger told detectives the man he and Sparks were waiting for arrived in a dark-colored vehicle, parked at the end of the driveway, walked up to the Acura and pulled a gun on Sparks.
When the gunman ordered Sparks from the Acura, Delaney said, Sparks put the car in drive and attempted to flee.
"The subject outside the car fired several shots at the driver causing him to crash into a car in the driveway located at 121 Kent Road," Delaney wrote, adding that the gunman fled the scene.
Police continue to investigate the shooting.
"If anyone has any information about this murder please call the Springfield Police Department's Detective Bureau at 413-787-6355 or please pass on information through 'Text-a-Tip'," Delaney said. To send a text, messages should be addressed to "Crimes" (274637), and should begin with the word "Solve."
According to previous reports by The Republican, Sparks was wounded nearly four years ago in an apparent drug-related shooting on Quincy Street that left a close friend dead.
The friend, Hasson A. Duncan, was gunned down outside his home at 181 Quincy St. on July 21, 2009, as Sparks arrived to pick him up.
Sparks was shot five times as he sat in his car but drove himself to an Island Pond Road business where a customer drove him to Mercy Medical Center.
Police investigating the shooting found marijuana, packaged for sale, in the vehicle.
Duncan's murder remains unsolved, and is listed among Hampden County's open homicide cases on the Hampden County District Attorney's website.
On the three-year anniversary of the shooting, Sparks posted a memoriam to Facebook: "Take a moment for Hason r.i.p he was like my brother words can't explain my pain I still hear ur voice everyday I wish we could play 2k blow something loud and kick jokes all day I miss u bro."
More recently, Sparks posted a photo of a rainbow over Mason Square, writing, "We not bout 2 die look at the rainbow."
Staff writer George Graham contributed reporting.