A man who claims to have witnessed a 2012 drive-by shooting in downtown Boston says former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was the shooter, Boston television station WFXT reported Wednesday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because he stil fears for his safety, the man told the station he recognized Hernandez's face after Hernandez's arrest in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd last June.
MORE: How Hernandez can beat the rap in Lloyd case | Investigation gallery
"When I see (Hernandez's) face, I just recognize his face. Compare his face that night to his face now. It's that face that I remember," the man told WFXT.
The man also told the station he was in the car with his friends Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu and Safiro Furtado the night of the shooting July 15, 2012. He said he does not know why the gunman opened fire on the vehicle.
"They just came up and started firing for no reason at all," he said. "Things happened so fast. I was trying to defend myself.
"They were shooting everywhere inside the car, front to back. They just came to kill. That's it."
The 26-year-old man was reportedly sitting in the middle of the back seat surrounded by two friends, with Abreu in the driver's seat and Furtado in the front passenger seat.
MORE: NFL player arrests | Disgraced athletes
The group had attended a nightclub, Cure Lounge, in Boston's Theater District.Authorities have obtained a surveillance video that shows Hernandez at the same club hours before the slayings. The video does not show any interaction between Hernandez and the victims, and the man told WFXT he remembers nothing out of the ordinary happening that night.
"We never had any trouble. We were not those kind of people. We were just having fun," he said.
In June, investigators looking into Lloyd's death seized a silver Toyota 4Runner with Rhode Island license plates from a house in Bristol, Conn., that is owned by Hernandez's uncle. The SUV was rented in Hernandez's name and roughly matched the description of a vehicle seen leaving the 2012 shootings in Boston.
Charges have not been filed in the double homicide, but Hernandez reportedly is considered a possible suspect.
WFXT reported that Hernandez's attorneys did not respond to requests for comment about the man's claims, and that Boston police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and weapons charges in Lloyd's death and is being held without bail in the Bristol County (Mass.) Jail. Last week, Hernandez's girlfriend, a cousin and an associate were indicted in the case, bringing to five the number of people facing charges.