Boston Shooter Had North Andover Connection

The man police say shot a sheriff's deputy at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary was the same man who allegedly robbed several North Shore businesses with a mask two years ago and also allegedly left an arsenal in North Andover.

The Essex County Sheriff's Department confirmed that Raymond Wallace, 35, of 1 Courageous Court, Salem, was the alleged shooter.

The deputy was shot during a struggle for his gun with a prisoner, before a second deputy shot the prisoner, Beacon Hill Patch reports. The deputy's injuries are not considered life-threatening, reported the Boston Globe.

After robbing PetSmart at gunpoint, Wallace allegedly fled in a stolen vehicle, ditched the car and set it on fire and got away in another vehicle.

In April 2011, North Andover police received a call from two men who said they found a massive arsenal inside a set of speakers they got from a house in Salem.

A couple days before then, the men -- who work for a business hauling unwanted and discarded items from people's homes for them -- went to a home in Salem for a job. The woman there told them that she wanted them to take some furniture, including two large speakers, and dispose of them. The woman said the speakers did not work and that it was pointless to even try to plug them in.

"She said she wanted them (the speakers) destroyed,"North Andover Police Lieutenant Paul Gallagher said. "But they took them to their own apartment in North Andover."

The men wanted to fix the speakers. When they opened the speakers up, however, they found more than wires and screws. Inside the speakers was an arsenal of weapons including several guns and two inert hand grenades as well as ski masks, police uniforms and Halloween masks including President Barack Obama masks.

North Andover Police contacted the State Police Bomb Squad to make sure the grenades were hollowed out and not functioning and then locked the items in the evidence safe.