DA Releases More Evidence In Police Shooting Of Man On Route 9

CHESTNUT HILL, MA — The Boston Globe, Patch and other media outlets "unfairly questioned" a report that cleared police officers who shot and killed a man in Chestnut Hill in February without considering all the evidence, the report's author said Thursday.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey released interview transcripts as well as video from police body cameras and witness cellphones backing the findings in his March report that said the officer-involved shooting was justified. Last month, the Boston Globe reported it had reviewed body camera footage that contradicted the report's finding that police saw a gun and gave Juston Root, 41, a warning before they opened fire.

"The Globe prematurely and unfairly questioned the report's findings without having reviewed the full scope of the evidence," Morrissey said.

Morrisey's March report said police yelled "gun" before opening fire. Last month, the Globe reported that none of the six police officers issued a warning before shooting, according to the newspaper's review of police body camera footage obtained under the state public records law. Patch and other media outlets later reported on the Globe's article.

Morrisey said he had planned to release the additional evidence when he released the original report in March. But Boston police requested he wait as they continued their investigation.

Police chased Root on Route 9 after he pointed what appeared to be a gun near Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston at an officer. The weapon was actually a BB gun. After crashing his car in Brookline, Root crawled out of his car to a nearby medium where he was surrounded by and then shot by police.

Root, of Mattapan, had a history of mental illness. Last month, his family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against five Boston police officers, a state trooper and the city of Boston.

In the original body cam video, the officer appears to order Root to get down and put his hands up, and another officer starts to say "drop" as the shooting starts. The Globe noted that much of the video footage it reviewed was obscured.

A gas station attendant told Patch shortly after the shooting that he heard police shouting "get down" before the gunshots.

The evidence released by Morrisey Thursday includes witness cell phone videos, surveillance camera footage and 15 videos taken from police body cameras. He also released transcripts from interviews with more than 20 civilian witnesses.

In one of the transcripts released Thursday, Boston police officer David Godin said he couldn't remember what was said in the moments before Root was killed.

"Everybody was yellin', everybody," Godin told investigators after the shooting. "They were yellin' drop the gun, whatever, I don't, I don't, I don't recall what they were yellin' but it was so loud and there was so many, all of us just yellin' commands."

Morrisey's office also interviewed a doctor and another man who witnessed the shooting. One said he heard someone yell that the man had a gun. Both men's accounts backed the report's finding that police ordered Root to keep his hands up.

"It seemed to be that they were asking him to put his hands up," the doctor said, according to the transcript. "And at the time, they actually said probably three, four times while pointing their guns at him. And he turned around facing the officers and as he did that, he, with his right hand, he took his right hand under his coat and at the time that happened, um, the police officers discharged their firearms on him."

Boston police officer Brenda Figueroa said she and other police on the scene "begged" Root to drop the gun, according to an interview transcript Morrisey released Thursday.

"I mean we begged this person to drop his gun, show us his hands and I remember him smirk, like, a laugh. I see it," she told investigators afterward. "I see the object coming out and I was afraid."

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