UPDATE: The Second Suspect has been apprehended and identified as Donta Lewis. The Herald reports police found him in a crawl space in his girlfriend’s house.
Yesterday at approximately 1:47 pm, according to BPD tweets and reports, officers from C-11 District in Dorchester responded to a radio call of a person shot in the are of 1500 Dorchester Avenue. It is unclear whether this shooting was part of, or was what initiated the police action that resulted in the death of one suspect and minor shooting injuries to two officers. A later report identified the suspect who died as 20 year old Roudy Hendricks of Brockton. The Globe reports that two officers from the drug unit were working undercover in the area. The Herald adds that officers Harry Jean and Terry Cotton were “running surveillance in an unrelated matter about 2 p.m. when they spotted Hendricks and the other suspect at Dorchester Avenue and Shepton Street.”
The BPD allege that the plainclothes officers approached the two suspects and Hendricks opened fire on them while the other suspect “started to move his clothing as if he had a gun,” Commissioner Ed Davis said. It was not clear whether the second suspect had a gun, but police are assuming he does for now.
The search for the second suspect saw parts of Dorchester Ave. and the MBTA service in the area shut down for a time.
Commissioner Davis did not offer an explanation as to why the officers approached the two men, only that the incident is under investigation and that “something about the two suspects drew their attention.” Police had earlier described the two suspects as being in a “confrontation.”
At the press conference Davis said “This is the second time in a week or so that we’ve had officers violently attacked by individuals who have no regard for the officers’ safety, and I think it’s a troubling trend,” referencing the shooting of a Middlesex sheriff’s deputy last week at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary where the suspect was shot in the chest after getting hold of an officers weapon and shooting a deputy. “But the officers are trained well and all indications are they did exactly what they are supposed to do when they are attacked like this” Davis Said. As with every officer involved shooting, Suffolk DA Dan Conley’s office will be investigating the incident.
Hendircks was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital. BPD Commissioner Ed Davis said: “This individual has a lengthy and violent record” which the Herald reported includes a June 2010 bust for gun possession. Friends and classmates of Hendricks interviewed by the Globe were surprised. Tarahn Maxwell, 19, said he was a “class clown” in high school. “He wouldn’t have done this without being provoked,” he said.
“He was just hanging around with the wrong people,” said another classmate, Malika Austin, 20.
The broad daylight shootout and resulting investigation and search left many residents shaken and asking for answers.
