Victim Said to Hold Hatchet, Knife When Shot
By Christine McConville, The Boston Globe
The Middlesex district attorney’s office wants to know what happened early Saturday morning in Lowell, before a family fight resulted in the shooting death of a 19-year-old college student.
A Lowell police officer fatally shot Andrew J. Clancy in the kitchen of his family’s Christian Hill home, said Lieutenant Thomas Kennedy of Lowell police.
Clancy had a hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other when the shots were fired, Kennedy said.
So far, few details have been made public.
Kennedy said that police were called to the Clancys’ home at 232 Methuen St. just after midnight Saturday. A neighbor called police after Bernard Clancy, a city health inspector, showed up looking for help, Kennedy said.
The younger Clancy, the couple’s only child and a sophomore at Trinity College in Hartford, was at home. That’s where the responding officer found him, brandishing his weapons, Kennedy said.
Clancy was shot twice, Kennedy said.
Emily LaGrassa, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said he had been shot in the torso.
He was taken to Saints Memorial Medical Center, where he died soon after his arrival, Kennedy said.
The officer had a cut above his right eye, Kennedy said. He was treated at Saints Memorial and released.
Edmund “Ned” Tarmey, a neighbor, said he does not know what happened in the home.
“I’m stunned. I can remember him as a kid, in the backyard playing,” said Tarmey. He said he has lived next door to the Clancys since before Andrew was born.
“He was a great kid, with the best parents. It’s extremely sad,” he said.
Lowell City Councilor Edward “Bud” Caulfield said Clancy’s father and mother, a nurse, “devoted their life to their only son.
“They sent him to the best schools. It’s going to be a few sad days in Lowell,” he said.
Clancy had attended St. Michael’s School in Lowell, Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, and then Trinity, Tarmey said. He was interested in international affairs, and had spent part of this past summer in China, Tarmey said.
The medical examiner’s office is expected to perform an autopsy today. LaGrassa said the district attorney is waiting for those results before offering more details on the shooting. The district attorney’s office is also waiting for results from toxicology tests, which may not be available for several weeks.
Kennedy said Andrew Clancy’s first involvement with Lowell police was Saturday morning.
“We are certainly concerned for the officer involved and for his family,” Kennedy said. He added that the department is behind him “100 percent.”