Prisoner Shoots Deputy Sheriff Inside Mass. Eye And Ear
BOSTON (CBS) -- A deputy sheriff and a prisoner were wounded in a shooting late Wednesday morning at The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports
Mass. Eye And Ear Shooting
It started when two Middlesex County deputy sheriffs brought the prisoner into the emergency room for treatment just before noon.
"As the handcuffs were being taken off the suspect, he began to struggle for the gun, there was a fight," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters outside the hospital.
"He began to struggle for one of the deputy sheriff's guns. The two individuals fell to the floor, a round was fired and one of the deputy sheriffs suffered a gunshot wound to the leg."
The second deputy sheriff shot the prisoner in the chest and he was critically wounded. He was rushed to nearby Massachusetts General Hospital. His name has not been released.
Davis said the deputy sheriff is in serious condition but expected to be OK.
It is unclear if the gun was in the prisoner's hands or if it went off during the struggle.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's office said the prisoner involved is Raymond Wallace. He was being held on armed robbery charges out of Essex County.
Mass. Eye and Ear said no patients or staff were hurt.
"Mass. Eye and Ear is grateful to our emergency department employees and certainly to the police department and the state troopers who brought this situation under control very quickly," Jennifer Street, VP of Communications and Planning at Mass. Eye and Ear, told reporters.
The streets around Mass. Eye And Ear and Mass. General were shut down immediately after the shooting. They were reopened around 1:30 p.m.
Mass. Eye and Ear remained open after the incident but the Emergency Department was closed Wednesday afternoon, while police investigated the shooting.
WBZ-TV's Joe Shortsleeve reports
The names of the deputies have not been released at this point in the investigation.
Raymond Wallace has a lengthy criminal history and was the focus of an I-Team report in 2011. In 2001, Wallace terrorized a Waltham store owner while wearing a ninja outfit. After a bloody gun battle with police, he was sent to state prison.
In 2009, Wallace was paroled after just eight years of his ten year sentence.
On Saint Patrick's' Day 2011, Salem Police say Wallace was heavily armed and wearing a mask just like the one in the movie 'The Town' when he held up a Pet Smart store. Wallace has been in prison since then.
