State Trooper Shoots, Kills Man on Storrow Drive Bridge

A man with a knife was shot to death by a Massachusetts State Trooper on the Silber Bridge over Storrow Drive before the start of rush hour on Friday.

Massachusetts State Police Colonel Timothy Alben said at a press conference that the unidentified man engaged in a verbal confrontation with the trooper and was shot after he failed to drop his knife on the bridge. Alben declined to answer how many times the man was shot.

Alben said that the unidentified man, reportedly a young white or Hispanic male, was attempting to flee Boston University police officers executing an outstanding warrant out of Roxbury District Court for a man wanted on numerous nuisance charges.

Alben said the man shot by police matched a description the person they were looking for, but he declined to say for certain that the deceased was the right person.

“Police were well aware of who this individual was and that he frequented the area,” said Alben.

Witnesses on WCVB took pictures of the incident that showed the man was muscular, shirtless, and wearing grey running shorts with a black stripe. Former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said he witnessed the incident while driving on Storrow Drive. 

Two witness told The Boston Globe that they saw the man, who they thought was a jogger, being followed by a red van on the Esplanade. The van, according to the witnesses, eventually hit him, prompting him to flee, and police from inside the van chased him. The Silber footbridge connects the Boston University campus with the Esplanade.

The fatal shooting is the second in less than a month that involved police officers killing a Boston area man armed with a knife.

The incident came 2 1/2 weeks after Boston police officers working with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force shot Usaamah Rahim, who allegedly lunged at them with a knife in the city’s Roslindale neighborhood. Friday’s incident was not counterterrorism-related, an FBI spokeswoman said.