Police peppered crowd: Witness: Superintendent randomly fired pellets

Boston Herald | Oct 28 2004

A police superintendent and at least two special operations officers ``randomly'' sprayed pepper pellets into a raucous crowd outside Fenway Park in the moments before an Emerson College student was struck in the eye and killed, a witness told the Herald.

``I saw (Deputy Superintendent Robert O'Toole) and the other special operations officers flailing their guns from side to side like machine guns,'' said Giovanni De Francisci, 30, an Emerson College graduate student. ``They were just popping off shots at the crowd.''

De Francisci, who said he was standing near O'Toole when he asked another officer for a pepper-pellet gun, did not know O'Toole's name until he saw him in a photograph in the Herald.

He and another source identified O'Toole, the commander of the Boston police special operations unit, as one of the officers who fired high-powered pepper-pellet guns to quell a rioting crowd after the Red Sox won the American League pennant last week.

Boston police have placed O'Toole in an administrative support position pending the results of multiple investigations. Pepper pellets fired by police killed 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove.

As the investigations deepened yesterday, with private attorneys and independent investigators promising a thorough review, O'Toole hired Needham lawyer Timothy Burke to represent him.

``That should not be taken as a suggestion that Bob O'Toole has done anything wrong,'' said Burke's law partner, Brian Rogal.

O'Toole issued a statement through his attorney, saying, ``I am personally devastated that the actions of the Boston police played any role in causing this tragedy and bringing such pain to her family,'' reported WFXT-TV (Ch. 25). ``My hopes and prayers go out to her family.''

Two other police officers involved in the Fenway riot have been placed on injured leave. Two sources familiar with the investigation identified one of the officers as Rochefort ``Rocky'' Milien, 48. He has been on the department since January 1991.

With scrutiny of police actions increasing, a lawyer hired by one of the young men injured by pepper pellets said he has been contacted by several other people claiming they, too, were hurt when cops opened fire.

Attorney Jeffrey Denner, who represents Boston University student Kapila Bhamidpati, questioned yesterday why O'Toole, the supervisor of riot control efforts at Fenway, would be firing a weapon with his officers.

``If you're out there shooting, you cannot be supervising and making good decisions,'' Denner said.

Bhamidpati, a 19-year-old honors student who was hit in the head by a pepper pellet, said he has been in constant pain since doctors removed part of the pellet from inside his sinus cavity. The pellet penetrated so far into his skull that it nearly became lodged in his brain.

``It was like someone taking a hammer and hitting me on the forehead as hard as they could,'' said Bhamidpati, who was shot while descending a metal beam in Fenway Park's outer superstructure.

Another man, Paul Gately, 24, said he was struck in the lip while sitting on a metal beam behind Fenway's Green Monster and was pelted a dozen more times when he came down.

Denner said the statements made by Gately and his client smack of impulsive decision-making by police who were scrambling to prevent the riot from spiraling out of control.

``No one expects the police to be defenseless, but neither do we expect innocent civilians to be executed in this context,'' he said.

De Francisci, the witness in the middle of the chaos, said he saw O'Toole firing a pellet gun on people climbing the ballpark walls.

``Without a warning, without sending a policeman over to them, Bob O'Toole fired at least three or four shots fairly randomly at the crowd that was on top of the ledge,'' De Francisci said. ``When we told him to stop, he said, `Shut up or I'm going to arrest you, too.' ''