Charlie Baker says he would support death penalty for cop killers
After an Auburn police officer was shot and killed while conducting a seemingly routine traffic stop, Gov. Charlie Baker said that he has, and continues to, support the death penalty for those who kill police officers — an opinion that’s not typically shared by Massachusetts voters.
“I’ve always said I would support the death penalty for people who shoot and kill a police officer,” Baker told Herald Radio on Tuesday. “I don’t think that’s a close call.”
Jorge Zambrano, 35, who is accused of shooting Officer Ronald Tarentino, was shot and killed by state troopers after a standoff with police that lasted several hours in Oxford Sunday.
Baker acknowledged that the policy is likely a far-fetched one in Commonwealth, which banned capital punishment in 1984. A Boston Globe poll found that fewer than 20 percent of residents supported the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The governor also expressed concern about Zambrano’s lengthy criminal record, which included several attacks on police officers, parole violations, and driver’s license suspensions. Zambrano had two recent run-ins with police before Tarentino pulled him over early Sunday morning. Less than a week earlier, he was pulled over and arrested for driving without a valid license and the wrong license plates, and earlier this year he was arrested and charged with assault and battery on a police officer.
“I think the issue here is why would somebody who had this much experience with the criminal justice system literally two times in a row walk out of court,” he said.
Baker spoke about three investigations: one around the death of Tarentino, another in the shooting death of Zambrano — in which a trooper was also injured — and a third as to why Zambrano was out of custody at the time of the shooting.
“I think those are important investigations. we should chase the facts on all of them,” Baker said. “We should make adjustments if we need to, especially with respect to how this guy, despite his rap sheet and everything else, managed to be sort of slapped on the wrist and had his last two trips to court continued without a finding which is just odd and led to some horrible consequences.”
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