A gunman brandishing an assault rifle opened fire on drivers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monday, leaving two people with life-threatening injuries.
The shooter discharged his weapon at cars and into the air along Memorial Drive – which runs parallel with the Charles River, not far from Harvard University – at approximately 1.20 p.m., causing panic on the road.
Drivers were forced to abandon their vehicles and flee, as a huge police response quickly swarmed the area. Authorities said he discharged between 50 to 60 rounds during the incident.
One witness, Joseph Minino Rodriguez, said he saw the shooting unfold from his apartment balcony overlooking the road.
“I thought this was a video game,” Rodriguez told reporters. “He didn’t give a f***. He didn’t care.”
The shooter was detained after a state trooper and an armed civilian, a former Marine, fired their weapons at him. The gunman was hit during the exchange and taken to intensive care.
The suspect was later identified as Tyler Brown, a 46 year-old man reportedly on probation for previous offences and in the process of moving to the area. WBZ News reported that he was sentenced to five to six years in state prison in 2021 for attempted murder, followed by probation, and ordered to undergo mental health evaluation.
The site of the attack, near the Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology campuses, is well used by commuters, as well as joggers and cyclists taking in its view of the river.
Speaking at a press conference later in the day, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T Ryan gave an account of the shooter’s actions and said: “What happened today cannot stand.”
Ryan said Brown would be charged with two counts of armed assault with intent to murder, possession charges with respect to the weapon, and several other charges. She confirmed Brown was on probation and under supervision for a previous crime.
According to The Daily Mail, the suspect previously shot at Boston police officers in May 2020, firing off 13 rounds before being stopped, and pleaded guilty to the attempted murder in 2021.
He was also on probation at that time over a 2014 conviction relating to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, as well as witness intimidation, having served just a few years in jail, the outlet added.
A large section of Memorial Drive was sealed off with police tape by late afternoon, with more than a dozen marked and unmarked police cars parked up and helicopters seen hovering overhead.
Eyewitness Adonna Simpson-Correia, a school bus driver, told The Boston Globe she and a bus monitor, Lisa Schill, were the only people on board their vehicle when the gunman turned his weapon on them.
“He pointed his, it looked like a machine gun, at my windshield,” she said. “We both got out and ran, and he kept shooting.”
“[The police] told me to run for cover but he was still popping,” Schill said of their escape. “So I ran, and fell, and then ran down the street.”
Sharon Young, one of several drivers also forced to run, said: “He let off probably 10 shots within 15 seconds. As I got to about this tree, state troopers were coming in on different sides, like seven people on foot coming in.”
Boston University lecturer Todd Czubek said he was passing along Memorial Drive in his car when he heard Brown’s shots: “I was like, ‘What the heck?’ I’m like, ‘This is the guy with a machine gun shooting.’”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey reassured residents that the danger was over but asked them to “avoid the area to allow public safety personnel to do their work.”
