Over 50 locals, city officials, and state lawmakers came together Tuesday for a tense meeting about last week’s shooting on Memorial Drive, demanding answers after two people were seriously hurt.
The gathering at the Cambridge Community Center was meant to update residents on the incident and how the city is handling it. But it quickly turned into a space where frustration spilled over, with folks asking how the shooter got hold of a gun and whether authorities responded fast enough after everything happened.
Tyler E. Brown allegedly fired around 70 shots near River Street and Memorial Drive just before 1:30 p. m. last Monday. He shot randomly as people tried to run away. Brown then exchanged fire with a State Police officer and a civilian before he was hit in his “lower extremities,” according to officials.
Brown and two victims ended up critically wounded, but all are expected to pull through.
Cambridge City Councilor E. Denise Simmons called the shooting a frightening event for everyone and praised the police for acting quickly.
“All of us seeing the footage of him walking in broad daylight with the AK-47 rifle, it was chilling, it was raging, and it forces us, every one of us, to confront the reality of what could have happened were it not for the swift and heroic response of our Cambridge Police Department,” Simmons said.
Simmons also pointed out worries about Brown’s past crimes and questioned whether the justice system is working right.
“It raises serious questions about how this man is on our streets, how is he able to obtain such a lethal weapon, and about effectiveness of the systems that are supposed to prevent exactly this kind of tragedy,” Simmons said.
At the time of the shooting, Brown was out on parole after finishing five years behind bars for firing at Boston cops in 2020. Court papers also revealed that he had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital just days before the shooting.
The prosecutors charged Brown with two counts of assault with intent to murder using a firearm plus six other charges like attempted assault with a weapon and illegal gun possession. On Thursday during his arraignment-done virtually from his hospital bed-Brown pleaded not guilty to all eight charges.
Residents kept pressing officials throughout about safety concerns – especially wondering how someone like Brown with his record managed to get an assault rifle-and what’s being done so something like this won’t happen again.
A few interrupted speakers too; some criticized both city and state responses while others felt waiting eight days for this meeting wasn’t enough support for those impacted by the shooting.
Huang admitted some understood why folks thought waiting so long was too much but explained that holding community talks one week later is pretty standard procedure in cases like this.
“I would say a week is a long time. We had tended to – and we’ve had discussions about this – but we have tended to have this community engagement one week later, partly because in the immediate aftermath of an event, there’s often not very much to share,” Huang said.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan added that they’re still investigating details-including tracing exactly how Brown got hold of that assault rifle.
“It is often possible, especially for people who are not qualified to have a gun, to get different pieces of the gun and put a gun together. So we are working our way through that piece,” Ryan said.
The city also shared info about mental health help available for anyone affected by what happened – recognizing how tough it’s been on neighbors living close by where all this went down.
-Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn. boehmer@thecrimson. com and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @Shawn Boehmer.
-Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire. michal@thecrimson. com and on Signal at Claire Michal.154.
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