Family of man killed by police after Brigham & Women’s confrontation continues push for new investigation
Juston Root's family are among those taking part in a rally at the Massachusetts Statehouse on Friday organized by the group Mass Action Against Police Brutality.
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BOSTON (AP) — The family of a man shot multiple times by police following a confrontation outside Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is continuing to call on state officials to open an independent investigation into his death last February.
Juston Root’s family are among those taking part in a rally at the Massachusetts Statehouse on Friday organized by the group Mass Action Against Police Brutality.
Organizers say they want Gov. Charlie Baker and state Attorney General Maura Healey to reopen the case. Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office concluded last March that the officer’s use of force was “objectively reasonable and justified.”
The 41-year-old Root was shot 26 times at close range after threatening security guards at Brigham and Women’s on Feb. 7, 2020.
Root appeared to be armed, but police later determined it was a replica BB gun.
Officers opened fire, and at some point, a hospital parking attendant was shot, but not fatally. Root fled in a car and was eventually was killed by police in Brookline after crashing.
Root’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year against the officers involved.
They maintain he had bipolar and schizoaffective disorders and was seriously wounded and posed no threat when the six officers fired dozens of shots at him.
Justin Desmarais, the parking valet, sued Brigham and Women’s Hospital earlier this year over the incident. He ended up with a gunshot wound to the head and right eye that left bullet fragments in his brain, according to the suit filed in Suffolk Superior Court, The Boston Globe reported.
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