Man Shot by State Police Identified as Beacon Street Harassment Suspect

BUPD had arrest warrant for Santos Laboy

Beacon St Harassment Suspect

University police say this video shot of the Beacon Street harassment suspect shows Santos Laboy, who was killed by a state trooper last week after waving a knife. Photos courtesy of the BUPD

June 23, 2015
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The man shot and killed by a state trooper Friday on a footbridge over Storrow Drive was under investigation in a harassment case being handled by the Boston University Police Department (BUPD).

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office confirmed Monday that Santos Laboy, 45, of Somerville was under investigation for allegedly slipping lewd photos under the door of a Beacon Street business several time since December. The BUPD was investigating the case because the business rents the space from the University.

Laboy was “a person of interest in the ongoing investigation we had initiated” in that case, BUPD Chief Thomas Robbins told BU Today. Robbins says that BUPD officers were chasing Laboy on the Boston Esplanade Friday because he had outstanding arrest warrants for other cases, including one from the Boston Municipal Court, Roxbury Division. During the foot chase, Laboy bounded onto the Silber Way footbridge near the BU campus. A state trooper confronted Laboy on the bridge and ordered him to put down the knife he was brandishing, state police say. Laboy ignored the order, and the trooper shot him.

The warrant for Laboy’s arrest was issued after a video camera installed by the BUPD outside the targeted business captured an image of a man matching Laboy’s description. The BUPD released the video publicly the day before Laboy’s death, seeking the public’s help in identifying him. The police allege that Laboy would phone the business after leaving sexually explicit photos there and would refer, in Spanish, to the photo drop.

Laboy had had run-ins with police before, including a 2009 incident where he waved a samurai sword at Boston officers, the Boston Globe reported, adding that he had been released from jail a year and half ago following imprisonment for that encounter.

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Man Shot by State Police Identified as Beacon Street Harassment Suspect

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  • Rich Barlow

    Senior Writer

    Photo: Headshot of Rich Barlow, an older white man with dark grey hair and wearing a grey shirt and grey-blue blazer, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey backdrop.

    Rich Barlow is a senior writer at BU Today and Bostonia magazine. Perhaps the only native of Trenton, N.J., who will volunteer his birthplace without police interrogation, he graduated from Dartmouth College, spent 20 years as a small-town newspaper reporter, and is a former Boston Globe religion columnist, book reviewer, and occasional op-ed contributor. Profile

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Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 28 comments on Man Shot by State Police Identified as Beacon Street Harassment Suspect

  1. It’s difficult to believe that technology nowadays could not provide a less lethal alternative for police in situations like this than a lead bullet…

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    1. The guy was coming at the cop with a knife most likely with the intent to kill him, what would you do in his shoes? Charge up your taser?

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      1. If a police officer is brandishing a knife and taking an aggressive stance while facing a civilian, and that civilian shoots the officer because the civilian fears for his life, would this conversation be any different?

        I suspect it would be different. It’s a good idea to think carefully about why that is.

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      2. It says he ignored the officer’s order. Not he charged the officer. Not he threw the knife. Not he cursed the officer.
        The offence he was suspected of was not rape. Not assault. It was leaving photos and making phone calls.

        Based on the facts as laid out in this article there is no explanation for why lethal force was appropriate. If the journalism is sound, the enforcement seems unsound.

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  2. BU Today, will you investigate, or request internal investigation with your follow up, as to why non-lethal force was not attempted?

    From all media I have read I do no understand why the suspect needed to be shot four times while trapped at both ends of a footbridge with only a knife, or why non-lethal force was not even attempted (again from what I’ve read, there was no talk of that…)

    I appreciate our police and realize the risks these men and women take every single day; I also realize how easy it is to be hindsight armchair quarterback… but that does not mean our police are not accountable, or that taking a life when not necessary is acceptable given a situation where the police faced this suspect with overwhelming manpower, firepower and an obvious tactical advantage.

    It is frightening to think that our state police, given the circumstances as they have been portrayed in the medis, would choose to shoot this man multiple times instead of attempt to subdue him first using some non-lethal means, or least fire only once and reassess.

    The media is the only way this story is told, the public needs help to understand why the police made the field choice to shoot and kill.

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    1. I agree completely. I am very confused by the use of what appears to be excessive and violent force. I think the Police Department and the media outlets should provide an explanation for this.

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  3. Whatever happened to tasering people, or shooting *not* to kill? The guy had a knife, not a gun, and it’s not like the arrest warrants were for murder. I’m not saying Laboy was an upstanding citizen or anything, but I can’t help but feel that this is another instance of cops using force disproportionate to the threat presented.

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    1. Sorry, but there is no such thing as “shooting not to kill”.
      When an officer fires a gun, it is to the center of mass of the body, simply to increase the odds of actually hitting the suspect, and stopping him/her.
      Handguns are not very accurate weapons, so shooting to the center-of-mass is standard protocol.

      I agree that non-lethal weapons (like a beanbag gun) should be more readily available so that they could be used where the suspect does not have a gun. If it is true that he was lunging at an officer when he was shot, then the shooting is 100% justifiable.

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    2. So a knife is not a deadly weapon now? That would be a surprising “fact” to the thousands killed by knives every year. Education does not, obviously, translate into intelligence, common sense or knowledge of the real world.

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    3. It is interesting to see how ‘far’ we have come over the last few years. We have seen a role reversal where police are now seen as criminals first. While not every single cop is a good guy, I think overall they are on the good side of the law as compared to criminals. People – stop listening to the garbage that the media feeds to you and think logically for yourself.

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  4. As one who was out walking around this bridge at this time, I am extremely grateful for everything the police did. Laboy was not shot running away or in the back. If you are told to put down your weapon, you should put it down. It’s very clear what needs to happen. The responsibility for the outcome, however unfortunately, lies with Laboy, not the police.

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  5. (copy & pasting what I emailed Mr. Barlow at 5:40am this morning after first reading the article)

    …but why did they have to kill him? This is the first time I’ve reached out to an author of a news article I’ve read, but I felt the need to do so because this question is just inescapable and no one really seems to be talking about it in this particular case. Also because I’m getting tired and even confused as to why these stories keep popping up. Why the deadly force? Is anyone asking about that in this case? If so, what do the police have to say?

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  6. I cannot understand how Mr. Laboy’s behavior warranted being shot down and killed. Lewd behavior is not on the list meriting the death penalty. Nor is that the role of the police force to enact (not the judge, nor the jury, nor the executioner). The police have a difficult job and I agree that it is simple in hindsight and from a distant armchair to argue what should have happened, but I can’t fathom why a trapped man with a knife was killed. Why?

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    1. 2nd degree murder is not on the “list meriting the death penalty.
      Lunging at an officer with a deadly weapon should merit a non-lethal attempt to subdue? The logic is not present…

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  7. I am also curious about the use of lethal force in this instance. I thought I read in one report that Mr. Laboy had a “folding knife.” If that is true, I imagine the matter could have been taken care of without resorting to lethal force. Sure, he has a record, but was he a killer or something? I would encourage BU Today to either dig deeper or to explain why they cannot (administrative censorship?), especially as BU police were involved in some way.

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  8. I guess the officer with the beanbag-shooting shotgun was not available.

    From the Globe: By Laura Crimaldi GLOBE STAFF JUNE 20, 2015

    “The 44-year-old man shot and killed by a State Police trooper near Boston University on Friday afternoon after allegedly brandishing a folding knife at the officer had been in an armed confrontation with Boston police six years ago that ended with a starkly different result.

    Santos Laboy was armed with a 3-foot samurai sword in February 2009 in Mission Hill and was saying that he planned to kill people when Boston police officers were summoned to subdue him, according to attorney Michael Roitman, who represented him in the criminal case that ensued. For about 15 to 30 minutes, Boston police kept watch on Laboy as he smashed cars and police cruisers and begged officers to shoot him, Roitman said. When Laboy rushed at officers, Roitman said, police retreated.

    Police held him at bay while they waited for an officer to arrive with a shotgun that fires beanbag-like projectiles, he said. Once the officer arrived, Laboy was subdued after being struck by one round, Roitman said.”

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  9. The police can never do the “right thing” for some of you. If a cop kills an assailant, you whine about “lethal force”, unless of course the assailant was coming after you. If a cop shoots an assailant in the leg instead of killing him, you whine because the assailant lost the use of his leg. If a cop uses a taser instead of a gun, you complain if the tasered person goes into cardiac arrest as a result because the cop “should have known” that that could happen. If a cop puts an assailant into a legitimate, approved physical hold, you whine and blame the cop if the assailant has an asthma attack. There is no nice, comfortable way to stop a man who’s waving a knife or a gun at people. Whether he’s shot and killed, shot and wounded, tasered, or physically restrained, some of you – who seemingly think that violent types in our ever increasingly crazy world can be appeased by cookies and hand puppets – will complain.

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  10. People, people, please just put yourself in the officer’s shoes for one second. This isn’t the movies; you can’t shot out the guy’s knee cap and expect him to drop to the ground so you can rush in and tackle him. You can run to your cruiser and grab a shotgun with bean bags and hope that he doesn’t have a gun in his pocket. You can’t expect that your pepper spray will shoot 15 feet striking him directly in the face and dropping him to the ground or that your taser will make a perfect shot and stick both barbs in the suspect and drop him.

    Everyone is so concerned about these suspects not getting hurt and making it home to their families safely. What about the trooper who wants to make it home to his wife and kids? Obviously, when becoming a law enforcement officer you know you are going to risk your life. But, should you really be forced to take on an angry man who is threatening you with a knife without having a reasonable option to defend yourself? Police officers are human too. They bleed. They get scared. They aren’t indestructible robots. Before you start judging the police officers involved in all of these shootings, close your eyes and picture yourself on that bridge with a man brandishing a knife, threatening you and coming at you. It’s a lot different when you’re actually there in-person than when you’re at home watching the media’s take during the 10 o’clock news.

    As for shooting him 4 times, like others have said, if a police officer fires his weapon it’s because he is in fear for his life and he is shooting to stop the threat. Again, he isn’t trying to take the guys legs out or shoot the knife out of his hand. He is shooting center mass until the threat is stopped. If it takes 2 shots or 20 shots, he will shoot until he feels that he is safe and the innocent bystanders are safe. He isn’t getting a thrill out of killing the person. He will have to deal with the PTSD and everything else that goes with taking another human’s life. Police officers are humans.

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    1. You are making an appeal to emotion. This is not how public policy is set, nor should it be.

      Statistics show that across the world, police routinely take down suspects who are brandishing knives, swords, and other weapons. This very suspect was taken down using non-lethal means by well-trained officers several years ago. It is possible, and the fact that lethal force was used is evidence (some would say strong evidence) of failures: a failure of training, a failure of execution, and a failure of public policy.

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    2. Bravo! The only thing I’d like to add is to ask WHY BUToday finds it appropriate to publish these incomplete “stories.” There is no indication that the author did nay research on Mr. Laboy’s criminal history, or on the reasons why not only the BU Police but other law enforcement agencies believed it was imperative to apprehend Mr. Laboy as quickly as possible.

      Sometimes I wonder whether BUToday prints these current events “stories” to generate criticism of some person, occupation, or belief, or promote another. There is rarely substantive follow-up. This was not a substantive follow-up. It is refreshing that a good number of readers understand the complexity of the decision to use lethal force, or admit they wouldn’t know what to do if they encountered the same situation.

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  11. I just want to say thank you to the police for everything they have done. Imaging Laboy is simply caught and released again maybe after ten years, I don’t know what to do with my life if I’m the one whom he is holding a knife and standing against.

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  12. It is very important to keep our community safe. Many students study very hard till late night every day. So we hope we are safe when we are back to our apartments .
    Thanks all the efforts the policemen have done for our people and the society.

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  13. Why is there no mention of reports that Laboy was mentally ill? It’s valid to ask why so many mentally ill people end up in confrontations with police and why lethal force was required in this instance and others. To say the officer felt threatened is not enough – George Zimmerman said he felt threatened. I’m stunned by the BU staff response which seems to reflect an editorial opinion rather than probing journalism. Come on people. Do the hard work. Ask the hard questions. Get the complete story.

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    1. First, how is the officer supposed to know that the person was mentally ill? Second, even if he did somehow, does that mean he isn’t allowed to use lethal force against the person? Furthermore, how is it not enough to say the officer felt threatened? Does he have to wait until he has actually been stabbed and is bleeding to fire his weapon? Do you want to make $55K a year and be told you have to go tackle a crazy person with a knife and you aren’t allowed to shoot them unless they draw blood? Why does nobody understand the basic concept of self defense? If you have such a hard time picturing yourself in the officer’s shoes, picture your child as a police officer up against someone with a knife. Would you tell your child they were wrong for shooting the person and they should have tackled the person with the knife?

      And an editorial opinion? What in the world do you think all of these “news” articles are. The media puts whatever spin on it that they want to. They are the ones quoting the suspect’s sister saying he was a good person and didn’t deserve to die and blah blah blah. They drag police officers’ names through the mud on a daily basis. They consistently side with the people who are shot before an investigation is even done. I’m all for waiting for more facts to come out in this specific case. My points are more generalized for all of these recent police shootings making it in the media. People automatically think the police officer was wrong if they shot someone, especially an unarmed person. Guess what, unarmed people are still able to kill you….

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      1. A car came within a foot or two to hitting me on rt. 128 about an hour ago, I was for sure threatened by that person, by accident or on purpose. By your logic, by being threatened, I was within my rights to run that car off the road, right?
        As far as $55k for blah blah blah, yes if you accept that job, you are signing up to put your butt in the fire, every traffic stop,every call you respond to. If that is not for you, find another line of work.
        Suspect charging with knife, shoot. Suspect displaying knife and disobeying orders at a reasonable distance, gun drawn, no shot.
        The last paragraph is verbatim from an almost 40 year veteran of BPD,who has never unholstered his weapon in 20 plus years in mattapan.
        Lastly, where did you get $55k a year from? If a cop isn’t making close to or over $100k they are at the wrong dept or lazy as hell.

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  14. Point blank cops are wrong in these shootings they could have used mace bean bag; stun gun but no he’s Hispanic so racist cops only look for criminal history on people first to see if they have any charges against police in the past and if they do they love it a justification to kill you they can’t wait to kill at will

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  15. I think people do their best with the given situation, and that officers do not take pleasure in senseless killing. However, there are ways to disarm without killing the person. If the type of gun is the issue, another gun should be readily available. If lack of training is the issue, that gap should be filled. Everyone has a right to a fair trial. I think death is an unjust penalty and I hope this doesn’t keep happening.

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