Boston Police Shoot Man In Leg After He Pointed Gun At Them: DA

BOSTON, MA — A Boston Police officer shot a man in the leg last night after he failed to drop a gun he had allegedly just shot off at two others, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. That man is out of the hospital and now being held pending a dangerousness hearing.

Police arrested John Mentor, 32, of Hyde Park and charged him with four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and various firearms offenses for allegedly shooting at two people during an encounter last night on Westminster Street in Hyde Park and then pointing his loaded .357 Smith & Wesson revolver at two Boston Police officers who ordered him to drop his weapon.

“The conduct alleged here put five lives at risk, including the defendant’s own,” District Attorney Dan Conley said in a statement. “But for the officers’ rapid response, this could have been a double homicide, and we’re extremely fortunate neither they nor the intended victims were injured. It’s a prime example of the grave risk posed by illegal firearms in the hands of people least suited to carry them.”

Allegedly Mentor fired on two men whom he had an ongoing feud at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Two Boston Police officers heard the gunshots on Westminster Street and saw Mentor chasing the men while holding a gun. They ordered him at gunpoint to drop his weapon. Mentor allegedly turned and pointed the firearm at them, at which point at least one of the officers discharged his firearm, striking Mentor in the leg, for which he was hospitalized with injuries that are not life-threatening.

He was discharged from Brigham & Women’s Hospital. A judge ordered him held without bail pending a June 7 dangerousness hearing at West Roxbury Municipal District Court today.

Police said they charged him with two counts of Assault with Intent to Murder, two counts of Assault by Means of a Dangerous Weapon, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, and Discharging a Firearm within 500 feet of a Dwelling.

Mentor is the same man convicted of firing at, but not hitting, two Boston Police officers during a 2009 encounter, for which he was sentenced to nine years in state prison followed by 10 years of probation, which is still open.

At the time of that previous encounter, he was on probation for a 2006 stabbing.

Suffolk prosecutors assigned to the DA’s Senior Trial Unit will review the facts and circumstances of the officers’ use of force – Conley’s practice for all non-fatal police shootings in Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Fatal shootings are investigated by the DA’s Homicide Unit.

Assistant District Attorney Jess Megee of the DA’s Gang Unit told the court that Mentor gave a post-Miranda statement acknowledging that he possessed and discharged the firearm, a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver that was found with three empty shell casings and three live rounds in the cylinder.

The victims gave separate accounts indicating that they had been walking on Westminster Street when a vehicle pulled alongside them, a man said, “that’s them,” and a man meeting Mentor’s description jumped out and fired upon them.

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