Marine Veteran and Trooper Stop Cambridge Rifle Attack — Massachusetts Needed a Good Guy With a Gun

Cambridge police described an extraordinarily dangerous afternoon: civilians driving, walking, biking, and rowing on the Charles River while the suspect fired an estimated 50 to 60 rounds into traffic. Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the incident lasted minutes thanks to the trooper and the armed civilian.

The shooter was not unknown to the system. He had previously served prison time for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in 2014, then shot at Boston police officers in May 2020 — five months after release on the earlier conviction. Prosecutors at his 2021 sentencing recommended 10 to 12 years. Judge Janet Sanders imposed a substantially shorter term and placed him on probation after release last year.

Reporting from NBC 10 Boston captured Sanders acknowledging she was taking a chance on the defendant despite warnings from experienced officers that he remained a danger. The judge drew a distinction between shooting at officers and shooting officers, noting no one was injured in the 2020 incident. That bet failed on May 11.

Massachusetts requires a Firearm Identification card or License to Carry for any firearm, with chief-of-police discretion, training mandates, an assault-style rifle ban, and a 10-round magazine cap. The regulatory burden falls heavily on law-abiding owners. The sentencing pattern for violent repeat offenders, by contrast, returns men like this shooter to the street.

The armed citizen who helped end the attack was, by available reporting, a Marine veteran lawfully carrying at the time. His willingness and capability to respond appropriately — alongside the trooper — turned a potential mass shooting into an incident measured in minutes rather than body bags.

NRA-ILA highlighted the gap between Massachusetts gun control rhetoric and a criminal justice system that failed to incapacitate a known violent offender. Gun rights supporters celebrate the heroism. They should also ask why the state that makes lawful carry difficult forced a trooper and a civilian to do what sentencing was supposed to prevent.