The person fatally shot by Cambridge police Friday has been identified as William Woodworth, 64, of Watertown.
Authorities identified Woodworth in a 1:37 p.m. email Monday.
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 Saturday
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.
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 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.
