BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — According to Boston Police Department, officers who were trying to arrest a man carrying an illegal firearm in Roxbury were surrounded and attacked by a "hostile crowd" on Tuesday evening.
BPD said the incident happened in the area of Humboldt Avenue and Crawford Street at around 5:40 p.m.
Officers were responding to a radio call for a person carrying a fanny pack with a gun inside, when they spotted a man later identified as 44-year-old Jermaine Thomas of Mattapan, carrying a fanny pack around his shoulder.
Due to the nature of the call, BPS said a large crowd gathered in the area.
"Officers attempted to gain control of the suspects hands, at which time the suspect immediately grabbed the officer’s wrist and began squeezing it," said BPD in a statement. "As officers struggled to gain control, the suspect ripped his hands away and continued to resist by clinching his arms and pushing at officers causing a Body Worn Camera to be knocked off and picked up by an unknown bystander."
As the crowd grew larger, BPD said a Boston Fire Department hydrant was "illegally opened, causing a heavy flow of water pressure onto the street directed at the officers."
According to the officers, they felt an object "consistent with that of a firearm inside the fanny pack" while still trying to put Thomas in handcuffs.
After recovering a loaded handgun and placing Thomas under arrest, BPD said "an unknown suspect was throwing buckets of water on the officers while they were attempting to place the suspect into the marked cruiser."
“I’m alarmed by the level of hostility my officers had to face while arresting a felon armed with an illegal firearm," said BPD Commissioner William Gross. "They were attacked by members of the very same community they were attempting to protect by affecting this arrest. Public safety is a shared responsibility, we need to continue to work together, not in opposition towards one another, to achieve that goal.”
Thomas is expected to be arraigned at Roxbury District Court.
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(Photo: WBZNewsRadio/ Mario Jarjour)