The suspect accused of using an assault-style rifle to shoot towards traffic on a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, leaving two victims with life-threatening injuries, was under the supervision of authorities, officials have said.
Tyler Brown, 46, of Boston, has been identified as the suspect who allegedly fired between 50 and 60 rounds at cars on Memorial Drive on Monday afternoon, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a press conference.
Ryan said the incident only lasted minutes after a state police trooper and a civilian, a former marine licensed to carry a firearm, both fired their weapons at the suspect multiple times, before treating him on the scene.
The alleged gunman was then transported to Boston hospital where he is in custody and being treated for gunshot wounds. Two men in separate cars were shot and are now being treated in hospital.
Ryan identified 46-year-old Brown as the suspect during a press conference on Monday, saying he “was under the supervision of either the Massachusetts Probation Department or Department of Parole.”
How The Massachusetts Shooting Played Out
Boston Police called Cambridge Police at around 1:00 p.m. local time on Monday, to warn about an individual believed to be in Cambridge, in possession of a rifle and “acting erratically,” Ryan said.
By the time Cambridge Police, along with Massachusetts State Police, arrived at Memorial Drive “there was already an active shooter situation”, she said.
Cars were stopped in traffic on the road while the shooter was “actively firing in an erratic fashion at various vehicles on the road,” Ryan said. The two males who were struck at this point are not believed to have any connection to the shooter, she added.
Ryan described how people ran from their cars to try and shelter from the gunfire, telling how some were discovered hiding under their vehicles.
A state trooper and the ex-marine civilian “went towards the suspect with their weapons” before firing on him and treating him on the scene.
Ryan said that although the shooting “lasted minutes, thanks to the actions of the trooper and that civilian,” a “very high number of rounds” were fired in a short space of time – between 50 and 60.
“That does not begin to address the trauma experienced by anybody who was out there,” Ryan said, adding that the gunman’s weapon “had the capacity to have struck people on the other side of that river.”
“Clearly people’s lives were put at risk,” she said.
Who Is Tyler Brown?
Brown was taken from the scene to a Boston hospital, where he is currently in custody, Ryan said.
The 46-year-old is from Boston and is believed to have been in the process of moving to Cambridge before the shooting.
He will be charged with two counts of armed assault with intent to murder, possession charges and others as more details from the investigation come out, Ryan said.
Authorities have not yet confirmed why Brown was on probation or parole. Newsweek has contacted Boston Police, via email outside of normal working hours, for comment.
Some five years ago, a man with the same name was sentenced to five to six years in state prison and three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including trying to shoot a Boston police officer, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
He was on probation for a different crime at the time – a 2014 conviction for assault and battery with a knife and witness intimidation. He was handed a four-to-five-year sentence for breaking his probation to serve concurrently.
Newsweek has not independently confirmed the connection, and prosecutors have not publicly confirmed that the cases involve the same person.
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