Let me start out by saying that my thoughts and prayers, and those of every member of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, are with the two injured officers and their families.  As a city I think we should all be thankful that the officers are expected to survive their injuries.

Under Massachusetts law, the District Attorney has statutory authority to investigate all sudden and unnatural deaths in the City of Boston.  As in every case involving the fatal use of force, I have assigned a senior prosecutor from my office to lead a full and impartial investigation of this incident to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the shooting, and to determine whether any charges are warranted.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee, deputy chief of the Homicide Unit, is assigned to undertake a complete review of today’s police-involved shooting.  Upon the conclusion this investigation, as I do in the case of every police involved shooting investigation, I will issue a full and detailed report of our findings to the public, and open the entire case to the media for direct examination.

This level of transparency does not, to my knowledge, occur anywhere else, but it is now standard practice in Boston.  We promote this degree of transparency and invite this type of no-holds barred review of the totality of the evidence in order to ensure full public confidence in the thoroughness, professionalism, impartiality, and completeness of our probe.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.