What to know
- A man suffering a mental health crisis stole a Boston police officer’s gun during a struggle outside Massachusetts General Hospital and fired it.
- Police and bystanders subdued the suspect, who was injured during the incident and taken to the hospital.
- Authorities are investigating the shooting, and the district attorney’s office will review the incident as part of its standard protocol for police firearm discharges.
A man stole a Boston Police officer’s gun and fired it during a scuffle, injuring himself, outside Massachusetts General Hospital on Tuesday morning, police said.
The man was evidently suffering a mental health episode when he approached the officer, who was working a paid detail on Cambridge Street, and knocked the officer’s hat off, according to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox.
The man, whose name was not released, was injured but expected to survive. The officer, other officers also working the detail, and passing pedestrians together subdued the man and retrieved the gun, Cox said.
“We’re very thankful that no one was seriously injured, that our officer is doing OK,” he said.
Officers received a call to the area of 265 Cambridge St. just after 8:40 a.m., a Boston Police spokesperson said.
The shooting drew a swarm of police to the bustling downtown street in Boston’s West End, just outside the region’s largest hospitals, during morning rush hour.
Police cordoned off the street and were seen sweeping the ground for evidence an hour later.
Information on the incident was limited as police launched an investigation, Cox said in Dorchester, where he, Mayor Michelle Wu and other officials had gathered for a planned 10 a.m. press conference on the city’s public safety plan for the summer.
The person “attacked the officer in some way, shape or form, was able to get hold of the officer’s firearm, discharged at least one round, injuring himself,” Cox said. “The suspect took the officer’s gun and ended up hurting himself, shooting himself with it.”
The man appeared to have been minimally injured, according to James Borghesani, a spokesperson for Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden. No one else was injured.
Authorities took the man to a local hospital for treatment. Cox indicated the man could appear in court later Tuesday.
The district attorney’s office pledged a “thorough investigation.” It investigates all instances in which a police officer’s weapon is fired, Borghesani said.
Wu thanked police for their vigilance “24 hours a day” and said the incident spoke to the unpredictable nature of their job.
“As you can see by how we started off today, there’s always something that pops up,” she said. “The job of officers, whether they’re officially on duty, or they’re working a detail, or they are even just sometimes off duty with their families, is a constant call.”
Around 10:30 a.m., police reopened the eastbound lanes of Cambridge Street. The westbound side, closest to the hospital, remained closed.
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