BOSTON--Charles Stuart, nationally known as the suburban victim of a shooting that also killed his pregnant wife as they left an inner-city childbirth class, killed himself yesterday after learning he was a suspect in the case.

Stuart, whose newborn son died 17 days after the Oct. 23 shooting, flung himself from the 300-foot high Tobin Bridge into Boston Harbor hours after what prosecutors said was a dramatic disclosure that swung the focus of the investigation to Stuart.

"Basically, it's fair to say, he could not handle the allegations or statements made about him," Suffolk County Prosecutor Newman Flanagan said, referring to a note found in Stuart's car at the bridge.

Flanagan said Stuart's story that he and his wife were the victims of a Black assailant who had entered the couple's car "is not true."

He confirmed that his office was contacted Wednesday by an attorney representing one of Stuart's two brothers to say the brother had information on the case. They spoke with the brother and then obtained statements from other relatives and close friends.

He said the investigation turned up evidence that included the engagement ring Stuart had given his wife, Carol.

"After careful review of this new evidence, I instructed Boston police homicide detectives to arrest Charles Stuart for the murder," he said.

A search of the Pines River in Stuart's hometown of Revere yesterday yielded corroborating evidence against Stuart, including a Gucci bag, wallet, makeup and other personal belongings of Carol Stuart, Flanagan said.

Throughout Boston and its suburbs, residents were stunned and confused by the news.

"I would say the whole town is shocked. They were portrayed as a model couple," said Wally Arsenault, a restaurant manager in Reading, a suburb 15 miles north of Boston where the Stuarts lived.

"At this point I still don't know what to believe. I still wonder what is the truth," said John Vajdic, who lives across the street from the Stuarts' slate-blue, split-entry home, which still had a holiday wreath on the door yesterday.

No arrest warrant had been issued prior to Stuart's disappearance, and attempts by police to find him early yesterday were unsuccessful. But, Flanagan said, "I would assume he could very well have been aware of it [having become a suspect]."

He said the case was still active.

The attack on the suburban couple, who had been married four years, drew cries of outrage about city violence from around the country. In the hoopla it stirred, numerous media outlets named a city resident with a long record, William Bennett, as a suspect. He had never been charged, and the prosecutor cleared his name yesterday.

Rumors' of Stuart's possible involvement had circulated in the Boston area for weeks. The speculation included talk that he and his wife had never been in a birthing class and that there was a large insurance policy on Mrs. Stuart. Prosecutors said yesterday they had no evidence of either rumor being true.