State Police Shoot Man on Esplanade Pedestrian Bridge

Suspect who had confrontation with BUPD officers identified

a massachusetts state police officer on a crime scene near Boston University after police fatally shot a suspect on Silber Footbridge

A state trooper lowers crime scene tape to allow an ambulance to leave Silber Way Friday afternoon. Photo by Cydney Scott

June 19, 2015
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A Massachusetts state trooper shot and killed a knife-wielding suspect on the Silber Way footbridge over Storrow Drive Friday afternoon after the man fled a confrontation with BU Police Department officers on the Esplanade.

The dead man was identified late Friday by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office as Santos Laboy, 45, of Somerville. The shooting came as police were looking for an individual because of “an open investigation and an active arrest warrant,” according to the DA’s office.

About 2 p.m., BU police officers believed they saw the suspect, but when they approached him, the man, later identified as Laboy, brandished a knife and ran, according to Colonel Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police. During the foot pursuit Laboy ran onto Storrow Drive and back onto the Esplanade.

When he ran onto the Silber Way footbridge, he was met midway by a uniformed state trooper coming over the bridge from the south. There was a verbal confrontation and “threatening gestures” by the suspect, Alben says.

“The trooper ordered him to put down the weapon he was brandishing. He did not,” Alben told reporters gathered at the scene. “There were shots fired at that point, and as a result of that the individual is deceased.”

There were multiple witnesses to the foot chase, Alben says, but none of them was in danger, and no officers were injured. The chase did not reach the BU campus. The suspect they were seeking had a significant criminal record in the Boston area, including warrants for harassment of a person of the opposite sex and related offenses, Alben says.

The Boston Globe reported on Saturday that Laboy had a confrontation with Boston Police officers in Mission Hill in 2009, waving a samurai sword at them before being subdued. Family members told the Globe that Laboy had been released a year and a half ago from a prison sentence related to that incident, and also that Laboy’s cousin had been shot to death by police in another incident in 2002.

In a letter to the BU community Friday, President Robert A. Brown said, “We have no reason to believe there is any continuing threat to the community relating to this incident. The area in and around the footbridge is a state police crime investigation scene and should be avoided. The activity that people in the vicinity may see is a consequence of the investigative activity, not an ongoing event.

“I am grateful to all officers who were engaged in this and whose conduct limited risk of harm to those who may have been in the vicinity at the time events unfolded,” Brown wrote.

The investigation into the incident will by handled by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office and the State Police.

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State Police Shoot Man on Esplanade Pedestrian Bridge

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  • Joel Brown

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There are 38 comments on State Police Shoot Man on Esplanade Pedestrian Bridge

  1. Nowhere in this account do I see justifiable cause for shooting and killing this disturbed individual.Police are paid to protect us,not eliminate troublesome citizens who are beset with mental problems.

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      1. Yes. He was brandishing a knife and would not put it down. That does not mean the officers had to kill him.
        Three shots fired. To what part of his body? State Troopers are supposed to be trained marksmen.
        One bullet in each knee. He might not drop the knife immediately, but he would fall to the the ground and not be a threat at that point.
        Just my opinion.

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        1. You’ve been watching way too much TV. No matter how good a marksman, no one can be expected to risk their life attempting to shoot out the knees or other “expendable” parts of a violent attacker in the second or two it takes them to close the distance between them. Your opinion has no basis in reality.

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      2. Shoot the knee and he’ll drop the weapon or be subdued without having to take his life. If somehow he can get up and throws himself on the policemen and attacks him them, then deadly force could be used. Perhaps he didn’t drop the knife because he didn’t trust the police since they already had killed his cousin in a similar situation in 2002.

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    2. He was given instructions to drop the weapon. he did not. he dies. No one feels bad for the cops. Only one person on Friday asked me if I was okay. If I was safe. He had a long rap sheet, did prison time, and was had an outstanding warrant. How can you make the assumption that he has mental illness? The police kept those of us in the area on Friday safe. Seems like only one person on the entire planet gets it. Thank god she is my friend.

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      1. Stop getting all of your news from the school newspaper: he was brandishing a pocket knife, and had a history of mental illness and suicidal tenancies. In a past altercation, police subdued him. In this instance, they used excessive force. No one is saying this person was a stellar citizen but generally speaking police are supposed to use the least means of force possible to ensure the safety of the public. One shot to the knee would have sufficed. Also no one cares that your bestie agrees with you–seriously no one, not even her. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06/20/shooting/ouqXSoWWyL45tR8DV7fl4N/story.html#

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    3. They didnt have to kill him im so tired of officers killing people they just dont kill the over kill and its to much your right they suppose to protect and serve they don’t do that

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    4. When you are out there defending the public and are confronted by a man with a weapon who is not following orders to drop the weapon you may criticize the police.
      I honor these men and women who are putting their lives on the line for you and your loved ones.

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  2. I’m glad we have our police force, especially true because as a long time city resident I know that the density of danger can be very high. But I don’t understand why non-lethal force was not attempted first in this case?

    Conjecture abounds in the article about Laboy’s past, what he is suspected of being guilty of today, what his cousin had done… It’s all trying to build of picture of why it’s probably “OK” that police shot and killed a “bad guy”. Yet none of it actually explains why a man with a knife who was trapped on a footbridge in both directions by several officers could not have be subdued using mace or a taser.

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    2. How little you people know. When confronted with lethal force, You don’t break out mace or pepper spray. MORONS. You meet lethal force with lethal force. Easy for each of you armchair quarterbacks to sit there and judge without YOUR life being in danger. The correct response was done. And as far as firearms training, You are taught to shoot center mass, And that is where he was shot. Training lesson complete. You same idiot will complain if we let him run around with the knife and accidentally hurts and innocent person. The the uproar is WHY didn’t the police stop him earlier?

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      1. Thanks for your heartless & insulting comment, Roadkill. Now go back to South Carolina where they revel in using excessive force.

        This man did not have to die; the public could have been protected with better police conduct. And please spare us your “expertise” on training. Their most important training comes in the first weeks on the job, when they internalize all the prejudices & misconduct, such as the Blue Wall of Silence & institutional racism.

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  3. What happened to the campus emergency notification system in this event? It took more than half an hour after initiation of the event for Send Word Now to begin sending notifications, by email (no notification through the phone system). Most of us realized there was something going on by virtue of all the news helicopters hovering overhead, where TV station websites were the ones making information available in a timely manner.

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    1. Actually I did receive both messages and phone call from emergency center before I got the email. And it was not that late – probably ten minutes after I knew the news from my friend who lives on bay state road. In addition, I was eating outside with my friends, and all of us received messages, calls and emails at the same time. I believe that you didn’t update your phone in the emergency page or somehow it didn’t get updated. Don’t blame school blindly.

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  4. In response the two first commenters, never lunge at a police officer with a knife. He’s going to shoot you, because at that point, it’s about safety. Police may taser someone who is running away or who is not an immediate threat, but anyone attempting to stab someone with a knife is an immediate threat. Regardless of if he was the man in the arrest warrant or not, he pulled out a knife. Had he only just refused arrest, they wouldn’t have shot him. Don’t let past events in the media allow you to look at this specific event with the facts presented. This isn’t a “police randomly shoot someone” incident. Please read this article with common sense.

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    2. Okay let’s look at this event individually. First of all, the guy did not “lunge” at the police officers, he was slowly ambling between each side of the bridge in a pretty non-threatening manner. Second, the officer shot him once at first and the man stopped and simply stared as blood poured out. He wasn’t even a moving target at this point but seeing this, the officer shot him another two or three times killing him. I saw this happening from my dorm, so you should check all the sources that are telling you that he was “attempting to stab someone”. You might condone a “shoot first, ask questions later” policy but some of us expect higher standards of the force supposed to protect us. I also find it highly disturbing that a full squad of “trained” officers do not have the skill set required to subdue one man with a knife (without killing him).

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  5. Don’t let past events in the media PREVENT you from looking at this specific event with the facts presented. ***Excuse my typo (typing on my phone)

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  6. Police officers are trained to assess situations before they engage anyone or anything, and continuing assessment as the situation unfolds. Along with that, they are trained (or at least should’ve been trained) in a range of methods on how to address most situations they will come across while they are on-duty. The range of things that should’ve happened between ordering someone to drop a knife and shooting them is quite large.

    Even if we’re assuming that the omitted details of this article include the cops telling this man several times to drop it and the man charging the cops, there isn’t any single way this could’ve played out that required this man being shot. If he wasn’t shot the time that he had a sword, he definitely could’ve been subdued when he only had a knife.

    Anyone with even basic hand to hand training, or disarming training (both which officers receive) should be able to take out any suspect in a similar situation as this without having to shoot them.

    I’m not saying all cops, but many of the cops I know personally or know in passing tend to only go to the gun range to practice shooting. Very few practice their hand to hand, disarming, or their speaking (they also receive training on how to speak to people and how to adjust various aspects of their verbal & non-verbal approaches based on the situation) and because of that they seem to only be comfortable handling things with a gun.

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  7. I was on campus at the time of this incident and was planning to bring 50 high school students to the esplanade later that day. Thankfully, some of my coworkers informed me very soon after the shooting happened that there was police activity so that we could notify the high school students not to go near the esplanade. In the hour’s time that it took for the BU police to send out a notification, both BU students and high school students participating in BU programs were in danger of venturing close to or into the crime scene. This is completely unacceptable, and I sincerely hope that next time there is criminal activity near campus, BU PD immediately informs the BU community.

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  8. From how the article is written, it looks like police are out to kill these days. No need to neutralize threats when you can just eliminate people altogether. I definitely feel safe now.

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    1. I know this is sarcasim but I do get what you’re saying.
      I just can’t wrap my head around how he was subdued and arrested using non lethal tactics in Mission Hill in a prior event where he was brandishing a Samuri sword. Fast forward a decade or so with a less threatening weapon(compared to a Samuri sword) and he is shot to death. He was obviously a disturbed individual who needed psychiactric/professional help not a chest full of bullets. Yes policemen and state troopers put their lives on the line everyday no doubt about it but maybe nonlethal tactic training should be implemented more often than not. Is it ok to play judge jury and executioner? I most certainly know that every situation is not the same but why carry tasers,batons, mace ect. if the first and only option chosen to deescalate an already escalated situation is to pull out a gun and fatally shoot a man wielding knife? Serve and protect all…not just the sane but also those who are disturbed and mentally ill as well.

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  9. A note from the Dean of Students office:
    If you would like to speak about Friday’s incident further, there are counseling resources available to the University community. For students, you may turn to the Chaplains at Marsh Chapel (www.bu.edu/chapel), our Behavioral Medicine staff (www.bu.edu/shs) or, if you are on campus this summer, your Residence Life staff (www.bu.edu/reslife). If you are a faculty or staff member, there is counseling available via our Faculty Staff Assistance Office (www.bu.edu/fsao.)

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  10. It’s disturbing how quickly we accept police violence as defending public safety. In the U.S., police kill citizens at 70 times the rate of other highly developed countries (http://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-kill-citizens-70-times-rate-first-world-nations/)
    We also know that there are huge disparities in who is killed, based on race and class. The police should be held accountable to the citizens they’re supposed to serve. We should never take it for granted that a police killing is justified.

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  11. “There were shots fired at that point, and as a result of that the individual is deceased.”

    This is what Orwell meant by double speak. We are supposed to hear that the police did a good thing. But not really, right? If you listen to what is said, it says the cops with the gun shot the guy with the knife.

    It doesn’t say the police were in imminent danger. It doesn’t say how close the man was. It doesn’t say why the cop fired or what he/she was aiming at. It doesn’t describe the threatening gesture.

    It sounds to me like the person was mentally ill. I don’t have the information, of course, but it sounds like it could have been handled without a death.

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    1. DONT BE AFRAID TO TELL THE TRUTH THEY KNEW THEY WERE GONNA EXECUTE THIS MAN 24 HOURS EARLIER WHEN HE MADE IT CLEAR ON FACEBOOK HE WOULD WORKOUT ON THE PLATFORM AND NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY THE POLICE EVEN THOUGH SANTOS WAS TOLD BY BU POLICE IF YOU RETURN HERE YOU WILL BE DEALT WITH AND NOT WITH BEAN BAGS LIKE 10 YEARS EARLIER BUT WITH REAL BULLETS SANTOSES REPLY WAS YOU DONT SCARE ME I WILL BE THERE TOMMORROW AND I WILL WORKOUT AND IF YOU FUCK WITH ME I WILL DEFEND MYSELF NEXT DAY THEY SURROUNDED HIM AND HE TRIED TO GET AWAY TO AVOID AN ALTERCATION BY CROSSING THE SILBER BUT PATTERSON THE STATE EXECUTIONER BLOCKED HIS ESCAPE AND ORDERED HIM TO DROP THE KNIFE BUT SANTOS WAS SIMPLY PROTECTING HIMSELF AND WAS MET WITH A HAIL OF BULLETS THAT DROPPED HIM AT THE TOP CORNER OF THE BRIDGE ON THE CHARLES RIVER SIDE IN MY OPINION IT WAS MURDER .

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  12. “The trooper ordered him to put down the weapon he was brandishing. He did not,” Alben told reporters gathered at the scene. “There were shots fired at that point, and as a result of that the individual is deceased.”
    Sounds a lot like the old “mistakes were made; people were hurt”. If the officer did nothing wrong, why not just say, “The officer shot him and killed him.” I can only think of one good reason to spin it in a way that takes causality and, thus, responsibility out of the hands of the officer, and that’s that he did something wrong.

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  13. It is so damning to realize that the only solution police use to defuse any confrontation is deadly force. But what is worse is, every media outlet buys 100% of the police explanation and sells it.

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  14. If the weapon is discharged, it is with intent to kill, not injure. That is how law enforcement is trained. If the problem is systemic, then perhaps there is some kind of training issue. Regardless, it would be wise to get the facts straight before jumping to any conclusion. Lets start teaching our society the meaning of accountability, and not just take the easy route by blaming the police. If there is a trend that is evident here in the US, then perhaps we need to start asking, why has the crime gone up that is leading to more police shootings? Sounds like causation, something we should have learned from our parents.

    In this case,how could the police have known he had some kind of mental disability? Lets start looking at social reform instead of putting blame on a cop that was simply doing his job – protecting us from criminals, including lunatics. Seriously, get a grip a people.

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  15. Anyone here ever shoot at range? Ever shoot under stress? Didn’t think so.

    Taking out a just a limb isn’t as easy as writing a comment on the net. I would encourage all the educated shooters out there to give it a try at a range some time. Center mass is a term for a reason.

    If a non lethal alternative was out there, I’m sure PD would appreciate it.

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    1. Durr Hurr, why didn’t they shoot the knee caps. People don’t understand how hard it is to do just that, with the possibility of lives at risk. You can’t just simply shoot a limb like it’s some kind of video game or TV show. You aren’t just going to risk someone’s life by trying to mace or taser someone with a knife. I understand people’s concern’s about police brutality, but when something like this happens you can’t immediately cry BLAME THE POLICE. At the same time, it’s not just a black and white situation. The shooting may or may not have been warranted, but to immediately blame the police is ignorant.

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  16. I don’t care who it is! If someone is armed and dangerous in the community and doesn’t listen to stand down should they deserve a life?
    The answer is no plain and simple.
    More accidents like these happen daily. The police handled it well.

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  18. “It’s disturbing how quickly we accept police violence as defending public safety. In the U.S., police kill…” Most people don’t care who is wiped out by police unless the victim is a relation. I thought US cops have better sense of judgement when it comes to taking lives. In Europe, cops hardly shoot anyone. If you are trained to cary guns, it is imperative to be fully aware that shooting people dead is never an excuse for resisting arrest. A few reckless cops with itchy fingers and no regard for human life seem to be regressively painting the rest the police community as societal monsters. It is a shame that terminating a suspect’s life is the order of the day in modern American policing. For those in support of shoot-to-kill policy; keep it up. Some day it just might be your brother, son or a dear relation. Regardless of how justifiable people try to paint this killing, there was clearly no reason for taking this guy’s life. If a bullet or two hits a torso not his head or chest, I don’t believe it’ll be that hard to disarm him. If he was brandishing a weapon capable of discharging anything projectile then this story might be different.

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