Brockton police officer wounded, suspect dead after hours-long standoff

Crime

After killing someone and wounding an officer, the suspect is believed to have shot himself after hours of negotiations with officers.

Police stand outside the Boston Medical Center emergency entrance where a Brewster ambulance, pictured, brought in the Brockton police officer who was injured in a shooting tonight. (Photo by: Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

A Brockton police officer was shot and wounded Thursday night, resulting in an hours-long standoff with an armed suspect barricaded inside his home.

Brockton police responded to a shooting in the vicinity of Tabor Avenue around 6 p.m., and discovered the victim dead inside a vehicle, WCVB reported. An unnamed adult male suspect fired shots from inside a home on the street, and police were negotiating his surrender when gunfire erupted.

An officer was hit four times, with bullets grazing his leg and hand, 7News Boston reported. The officer was rushed to Boston Medical Center around 6:30 p.m., according to The Boston Globe, and is being treated for non-life-threatening wounds.

The circumstances of the initial reported shooting are unclear, though it occurred in a residential area with triple-decker homes, WCVB reported.

The standoff lasted hours and involved a massive law enforcement response, including SWAT, and ended around 10 p.m. Around 7:30 p.m., Massachusetts State Police tweeted asking media helicopters to leave the area, as broadcasts were giving away tactical positions.

To media helicopters covering the ongoing Brockton incident, please maintain the distance and altitude you are currently at, for sake of officer safety. The position of one helo before it moved off a short time ago revealed livestream of our tactical team’s positions. Not good.

— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) October 7, 2021

The barricade situation along Tabor Ave has ended ..SWAT seen leaving the scene as well as medics ..more info set to be released shortly @wbz (Video shared by a neighbor in the area) pic.twitter.com/hWiZDmfuFI

— Zinnia Maldonado (@ZinniaDee_TV) October 8, 2021

Around 10:45 p.m., Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz told reporters the subject of the standoff died, and is believed to have shot himself when he came out of the house around 9:30 p.m.

STAND-OFF UPDATE from Plymouth DA Tim Cruz:
– subject of standoff has died, believed he shot himself when he came out around 9:30pm
– officer was shot ~4 times but going to be okay
– all began after 911 calls re: shooting on Taber in which another civilian was killed. @7news pic.twitter.com/jF36XDxXNK

— victoria price (@victoriapricetv) October 8, 2021

NBC10 Boston was briefly broadcasting live at 10:35 p.m., interviewing a friend of the suspect.

“He was just confused, he let the drugs get to him a little bit, and then he got off, he was clean he was fine, he was doing well for himself, and then at the bitter end this happened, and I’m not even sure what the motive is behind what he did,” the person, who identified himself as a close friend of the person involved in the standoff, told NBC. “I was with his father for a little bit, negotiating back and forth, and the negotiators actually said he was outside, so I was happy it was going to end peacefully, and I kept praying left and right, ‘just come out, surrender yourself, you know you’re going to jail but you’ll still be alive, you don’t have to take your own life’…there’s a better answer than gun violence.”