Boston police fatally shot a suspect who attacked officers inside a Hemenway Street apartment building Saturday morning, officials said.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the suspect was likely suffering a mental health crisis and attempted to attack officers with a sword. He confirmed “multiple” police officers and EMS clinicians sustained non-life-threatening injuries but did not specify how many.
“One or more officers, [who are] under investigation at this time, fired both tasers and their weapon at the individual, bringing the person to a halt,” Cox said, adding that the suspect — who has not been publicly identified — died at a local hospital.
At around 10:44 a.m., officers responded to 212 Hemenway St. for a mental health distress call involving an individual who believed four people in the area had weapons and he was in danger, Cox told reporters at an afternoon press conference at the intersection of Huntington Avenue and Forsyth Way. The individual wielded a sword and used the weapon against Boston Police Department, or BPD, officers as well as EMS clinicians, according to Cox.
The BPD’s homicide team and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office are investigating the incident, Cox said.
The incident did not involve any Northeastern students or buildings, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said at the press conference. The apartment building is down the street from Stetson West residence hall and 204 Hemenway St., a leased property.
Northeastern sent out one email alert to students on the Boston campus at 11:57 a.m. instructing students to avoid the area. No other alerts have been issued as of publication.
Northeastern media relations referred The Huntington News to Boston police for information on the incident.
“Certainly, we’ve spoken with the Northeastern police, and they can speak for themselves,” Cox said. “Otherwise, I believe they’ve sent out notifications … saying that these students didn’t have any ongoing threats to their campus. We’ll hopefully get this area back to them as soon as possible.”
Hayden said police have no reason to believe that the incident is connected to the previous incidents near Northeastern’s campus the past eight days, including the stabbing outside of Marino Recreation Center March 27, the stabbing near East Village the morning of April 1 and the reports of shots fired on Gainsborough Street that evening.
“This was a very chaotic circumstance, or a number of first responders, both from the mental health perspective, as well as members of the Boston Police Department, doing everything they could, to deal with a difficult situation, an individual who was clearly in some sort of mental distress,” Hayden told reporters.
This story is developing.
