Relatives of Eduardo Rózales López said they believe more attackers were involved than the number of people now facing charges.
CHELSEA, Mass. — The family of a 25-year-old Chelsea man killed in a stabbing attack demanded broader accountability Friday after an 18-year-old defendant was arraigned on a murder charge and ordered held without bail in a case prosecutors said involved a group chase captured on surveillance video.
The hearing in Chelsea District Court focused on Sergio Josué Castellanos, but much of the tension centered on who else may have taken part in the assault that left Eduardo Rózales López dead after surgery. Prosecutors described a violent pursuit through the neighborhood and said investigators recovered bloody clothing and a machete. López’s relatives emerged from court saying the public account still felt incomplete. Their anger underscored the immediate stakes of the investigation: not only whether prosecutors can prove a murder case against Castellanos, but whether police and the district attorney’s office will identify and charge everyone they say appeared in the group that surrounded López before he died.
Authorities said officers were sent to Chestnut Street and Everett Avenue at about 6:45 p.m. Thursday for reports of a stabbing. By the time first responders arrived, the violence had already spread fear through a packed Chelsea neighborhood of homes, shops and side streets. Prosecutors said surveillance video later gave investigators a clearer sequence. They told the court that five people could be seen chasing López before the attack turned deadly. The footage, prosecutors said, showed Castellanos striking downward toward López while he was on the ground. Police later found Castellanos and several other males behind a fenced property nearby. Prosecutors said Castellanos had a cut to his leg and had changed his clothes, but the clothes seen on camera were recovered near him. Those details became the backbone of the prosecution’s argument that the attack was not random confusion at a chaotic scene, but a targeted group assault that could be traced step by step.
For López’s relatives, though, the evidence described in court sharpened rather than eased their frustration. Family members said López had just cashed a check before he was attacked outside. They told reporters they believed five people were involved, yet only two people had been brought into court Friday. One was Castellanos, charged with first-degree murder. The other was a man identified in local reports as Jose Mancia or Jose Mancie, who was arraigned on a trespassing charge related to the broader investigation and released on his own recognizance. That gap between the family’s understanding of the attack and the charges publicly announced fueled the strongest reaction of the day. Supporters speaking for the family said it was painful to hear prosecutors describe multiple people in the chase while the legal process had, at least so far, centered on just one murder defendant and one lesser related case.
Prosecutors said López suffered stab wounds to his neck and torso. He was treated at the scene, taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and died early Friday morning. Local reports identified him as a Chelsea resident, a husband and the father of a 2-year-old son. Relatives also said he had arrived in the United States from Guatemala about seven years ago. Those details gave the courtroom conflict a deeper weight. This was not only a homicide case moving through early legal steps, but also a sudden loss that had left a young family behind. The victim’s wife and sister, according to local coverage, were in court as prosecutors described the attack. Their presence made the hearing unusually charged, especially once it became clear that Castellanos would be allowed to remain out of camera view. Supporters of the family said that decision added to a sense that the family was bearing the full public pain of the case while the accused could shield himself from scrutiny.
The defense pointed to unresolved questions that are likely to shape the next phase. Castellanos’ lawyer, Brian Kelley, argued in court that although prosecutors described a stabbing motion on video, no knife could actually be seen in that footage. He also said a police report suggested someone else, not matching his client’s description, may have possessed a knife. That argument does not erase the prosecution’s case, but it signals the likely fault line ahead: whether the evidence ties Castellanos directly to the fatal wounds beyond the surveillance images and the items police recovered nearby. It also adds another unanswered issue that matters to the family and the public alike. If the weapon was in someone else’s possession at some point, investigators will need to explain who handled it, when and how the physical evidence aligns with the sequence shown on video. Those questions may become central if the case moves toward indictment and trial.
Outside the courthouse, reactions showed how deeply the killing had cut through the community. Neighbors described shock that such violence erupted in a busy Chelsea area where residents pass through on foot and by car every day. Saul Alicea said people did not expect something like that to happen there. Shauniece White said the sight of blood left on the ground made the danger feel real long after the police tape went up. Chelsea Police Chief Keith Houghton said local detectives and Massachusetts State Police detectives were working the case and were prepared to use all available resources. His statement suggested investigators were still in the evidence-gathering stage, a point reinforced by reports that the crime scene covered several blocks. That broader footprint matters because it indicates the confrontation may not have been confined to one sidewalk corner, but may have unfolded as a moving pursuit through the neighborhood.
What comes next is both legal and personal. Castellanos remains jailed without bail and is expected back in court in late April. Prosecutors have not publicly laid out a motive, said whether more arrests are imminent or explained in full how each person seen in the video may be classified by investigators. Those gaps leave the family in an uncertain position as they move from shock into a long court process. The public record now includes a murder charge, a trespassing charge, a dead victim, a recovered machete and surveillance images that prosecutors say show a group chase. But it still does not fully answer the question the family raised most forcefully Friday: who, exactly, took part in Eduardo Rózales López’s final moments, and who else will be held to account as the case moves forward.
By Tuesday, the case remained open and emotionally raw, with López’s family pressing for broader charges and prosecutors still building the record around the street attack. The next milestone is Castellanos’ late April court date, when investigators may offer a clearer picture of whether more defendants will be named.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.