By Lance Reynolds
Boston Herald
BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey and her GOP gubernatorial rivals all sounded off on Tuesday, declaring that bail for the two Rhode Island men charged with taking over a Boston street and attacking city police officers should have been higher.
“These individuals’ behavior was completely destructive, dangerous and against the law,” Healey said in a statement shared with the Herald. “I’m disgusted by these meetups, and I will be taking action to support law enforcement and hold accountable anyone who attacks our police and communities to the fullest extent of the law.
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“Bail should have been set higher as the prosecution requested,” the governor added.
Healey took her stance on Tuesday afternoon after Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve issued a press release calling for bail reform earlier in the day.
Shortsleeve raised the issue after Roxbury Judge David Poole ordered William Cantwell, 19, of Warwick, and Julian Bowers, 18, of Cumberland , held on $1,000 cash bail and $500 cash bail, respectively, on Monday.
Poole also ordered the two out-of-state men accused of joining in an illegal street racing event and assaulting responding Boston Police officers early Sunday morning in the South End to sign a waiver of extradition and advised them to stay out of the city except during their criminal proceedings.
Prosecutors had requested $20,000 cash bail for Cantwell and $15,000 bail for Bowers, with GPS monitoring and a curfew as conditions, saying the criminal justice system “needed” to send a “strong message.”
Healey’s office told the Herald that there will be further developments. Her office scheduled a press conference late Wednesday morning to address “illegal car meetups” across the state.
A Boston Police spokesman said there were no updates into the “active investigation” on Tuesday.
Cantwell and Bowers appeared in Boston Municipal Court in Roxbury on Monday to answer charges of malicious destruction of property over $1,200, disorderly conduct, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest. Cantwell faces an additional charge for possession of a class D drug.
They are due back in court on Nov. 5 for a pre-trial hearing.
Shortsleeve described the bail amounts that Poole set as “shockingly low,” which he said reveal “systemic failures in public safety.”
If elected as governor in 2026, Shortsleeve said he’d end cashless bail and institute mandatory minimum bail floors in cases involving attacks on law enforcement or arson/destruction of public property. He’d also look to require judges to justify low-bail orders publicly, while strengthening pretrial detention laws.
“The judge just handed these two alleged violent criminals who are charged with attacking police officers a get out of jail almost free card by setting the bail so low,” Shortsleeve said in a statement. “And we wonder why we have a crime problem despite what Maura Healey and ( Boston Mayor) Michelle Wu claim.”
BPD Commissioner Michael Cox has said that officers responded to the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Tremont Street early Sunday morning to a report of a “large group of people,” approximately 100, engaged in illegal street racing.
Police said that participants used several of their cars to “block the intersection, preventing normal traffic flow.” That’s when some individuals reportedly started to throw “cones, poles and other objects” at responding officers.
As the police exited their car in an attempt to arrest some of the participants, the violence continued, according to Cox. Some of the lawbreakers reportedly jumped on the hood of the police car, which was then hit with fireworks before catching fire.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy says that bail in these cases “should be raised … to make our streets safer and hold offenders accountable.”
“Actions must have consequences,” he said in a statement shared with the Herald. “Bail must reflect the seriousness of the crime to protect public safety and deter further violence; failing to do so sends the wrong message about our state’s tolerance for criminal behavior.”
Street takeovers, part of a nationwide phenomenon, also erupted over the weekend in Randolph , Middleboro and Fall River.
Mike Minogue, who announced his Republican gubernatorial campaign last week, said the chaos in the South End was “terrible.”
“The Governor’s role is to uphold the law and keep our citizens safe,” he stated in a social media post Monday morning. “Attacking police officers and destroying property is criminal. We need to back the law enforcement who keep our communities safe.”
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