A police officer fired their weapon and killed someone during an 8:06 p.m. Friday incident in Central Square, Cambridge police said.
The incident took place at Massachusetts Avenue and Temple Street. Police were drawn there by a report to the department’s nonemergency line of “suspicious” people loitering in a loading dock and parking lot behind businesses, Middlesex district attorney Marian Ryan and acting Cambridge police commissioner Pauline Wells said in a 12:43 a.m. Saturday press release.
Officers responded to the scene and “engaged verbally with multiple individuals” in the area, the officials said. According to their press release:
The preliminary investigation suggests that a man in his 60s, who was seated in a vehicle when the police arrived on scene, allegedly exited his vehicle and pointed a firearm at officers. Cambridge Police Officers attempted to physically disarm the individual and multiple shots were fired, striking the individual. A loaded firearm was taken from that individual.
The most recent previous officer-involved shooting was Jan. 4, 2023, when an officer killed Sayed Faisal, 20, a Bangladeshi student running around Cambridgeport with a knife during a moment of emotional stress.
This is the first gunfire incident in Cambridge since the ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system was turned back on for police Aug. 17. It had been off for around a dozen weeks after a City Council vote in May, when a majority of members said there was no evidence the system keeps anyone safe, and a fear that the system could be used for surveillance by the federal government.
Then came the July 4 killing of Xavier Bautista, 32, a Public Works employee for the city, near his home in The Port neighborhood. If ShotSpotter was active and happened to hear the shooting, a faster response could have saved Bautista’s life, some said.
A worker at the ManRay nightclub said he heard shots at around 8 p.m. Friday as he stood outside smoking, and police showed up quickly. “Good thing they got those Shot things back,” said Greg Hausler, general manager at the club. “It probably would have taken them twice as long” to arrive without ShotSpotter, he said.
Hausler said he heard five shots: One shot, a second after a brief pause and then a series.
Police, though, were already on the scene and ShotSpotter played no role in officers’ response.
According to scanner reports, the caller told Cambridge officials that four people “came in on bikes” and were “standing near a vehicle” suspiciously in the loading area in the back of the building. Reports of shots fired came at 8:06 p.m., according to police scanner reports.
An ambulance was on the way one minute later, according to police scanner reports. “Suspect is down,” police said. Medical aid was rendered on scene, Ryan and Wells said in their Saturday email, but the man was pronounced dead.
Several Cambridge Police Officers were taken to area hospitals as a precaution but were treated and released by the time of the update by Ryan and Wells.
An investigation of the incident is being conducted by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, State Police detectives assigned to the District Attorney’s Office and Cambridge police. It will include witness interviews and a review of available video, including the body-worn cameras on all responding officers, Ryan and Wells said. The body-worn cameras were given to police after the shooting of Faisal in 2023.
