By John Ellement
Boston Globe
Related Article: Mass. officer shot in the face, suspect caught |
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Police Officer Phillip Hurton only had time to raise his hands - and then the bullets slammed into him.
The assailant “fired two shots from a firearm at Officer Hurton, striking him in the face and wrists” on Tuesday night, Framingham police wrote in a report filed in court. “Officer Hurton immediately spun around and was staggered.”
Yesterday, police said in the report that Hurton was in serious but stable condition at Massachusetts General Hospital with a bullet lodged in his neck, a shattered jaw, major injuries to his right hand, and a shattered bone in a finger of his left hand.
Hurton was shot on Beaver Street as he and other officers rushed to capture two men who had allegedly robbed a Tommy’s Taxi driver of $50 in cash and a cellphone about 10:30 p.m.
“He will recover,” said Lieutenant Paul Shastany.
Police arrested Sahr W. Josiah, 22, who they believe fired the shots. The second suspect is still at large and sought by police.
Marcia Moreia was in her home on neighboring First Street at the time. “I heard, like, four or five gunshots,” said Moreia, whose husband parks his tractor trailer unit near the site of the shooting. She grabbed her children and brought them into her bedroom.
“You can see the shadows in my eyes because I did not sleep too much,” she said.
Hurton was pulled to safety by Officer Timothy O’Toole, and then Josiah ran behind AV’s Market on Beaver Street and into the parking lot of a shipping company - where he fired at undercover officers, shattering the window of at least one cruiser, police said.
“They returned fire,” Shastany said, but the shots missed the gunman.
Through his lawyer, Josiah pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday in Framingham District Court but did not enter the courtroom. Judge Paul Healy Jr. ordered him held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing tomorrow.
His lawyer, Charles Hughes, declined to comment.
Josiah is facing 19 charges, including unlawful possession of a firearm, second offense, based on his 2005 conviction in Dorchester Juvenile Court for possession of a firearm and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the police report.
Other charges include two counts of armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and armed robbery.
A .40 caliber bullet was found in Josiah’s pocket, and police recovered a handgun that might have been used, according to a law enforcement source who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. It was not known yesterday whether Hurton was hit by .40 caliber bullets.
Hurton is married and has been a police officer for five years. He was recently transferred to Framingham from the Wayland department, Shastany said.
The events that led to the shooting of Hurton began around 10:30 p.m. when Leon Wilson, a veteran driver for Tommy’s Taxi, backed his yellow-and-red Ford Crown Victoria into the driveway of an Alexander Street apartment building.
Suddenly, two men were standing on opposite sides of the taxi, each pointing a black handgun at the 71-year-old Wilson, police said, adding that Josiah repeatedly threatened to kill Wilson if he did not do as ordered.
Wilson, who was robbed at knifepoint in Boston about a decade ago, handed over $50 in cash and his cellphone and the robbers fled. Wilson, according to the report, pulled out his own firearm and ran after the suspects, losing them about a block away.
Other officers spotted the suspects, leading to the confrontation that left Hurton wounded.
Wilson, through his supervisor, Jo-Anne Thompson of Tommy’s Taxi, declined to comment.
Thompson described Wilson as a longtime employee who was traumatized by the incident, but who also planned to work his regular shift last night. “He had a gun pointed to his head, so he is very shaken up, but he is fine,” said Thompson. “He’s a young 71. He’s an active guy.”
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