The Boston-area city faces criticism for arresting the alleged shooter right away, but not the man who appeared to attack him before getting shot.
(September 13, 2024 / JNS) Video footage, which the Daily Wire obtained, appeared to show a young man, who accused pro-Israel ralliers of committing “genocide,” run across a busy street in Newton, Mass., on Thursday and tackle one of the ralliers. At some point, the latter seemed to shoot the assailant.
“Regrettably, the answer to most of the questions you’re going to have is, ‘We are working on that,’” Marian Ryan, the district attorney of Middlesex County, which includes the City of Newton, said at a press conference on Thursday evening.
“What we do know at this point is that at approximately 6:40 tonight, the Newton Police responded to calls at Washington and Harvard Street, just a short distance from the station,” Ryan said. “There was a small group of individuals—pro-Israeli demonstrators, who were demonstrating on one side of the street. There was an individual, apparently completely randomly walking down the other side of the street. Words were exchanged back and forth across the street.”
The man across the street “at some point began crossing the street. Appears to have gone back to his side of the street. Ultimately came across and jumped upon one of the demonstrators,” the district attorney said. “A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group.”
Ryan named Scott Hayes, 47, of Framingham, Mass., as the shooter and said that he is under arrest.
“He right now is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury,” she said. “He will be arraigned tomorrow at the Newton District Court on those charges.”
The man who crossed the street “has sustained life-threatening injuries and is being treated at a local hospital,” she added.
In response to a question, she said that the attacker came “very rapidly” across the street and “tackled” the other man. “It’s our understanding that that was his gun and that he legally possessed that gun,” she said, of Hayes.
Asked to characterize the man—who had reportedly called the pro-Israel ralliers “sick” and accused them of “genocide”—as either “anti-Israel” or “pro-Palestinian,” the district attorney said, “I think it’s too soon to to get into that.”
George McMains, acting chief of the Newton Police, said that the department “will be providing extra patrols at the houses of worship over the next several days as well as beyond if we feel that’s appropriate or necessary.”