'Yes, The System Has Failed': Wu On Tuesday Police Shooting

BOSTON, MA—Michelle Wu, Boston's mayor-elect, said the shooting of three police officers Tuesday by a man reportedly released from jail over the summer, represented the failure of a system that lacks support for people after their incarceration, according to WGBH.

"We have systems that have failed our young people time and time again, and we need to ensure that there are strong accountability measures when there are incidents of violence and harm, but there need to be strong pathways to ensure that our returning citizens are coming into (the) community with the supports and stability," Wu said while speaking with reporters just days before her swearing in on Tuesday.

Asked whether the system failed in this week's case, Wu responded: "Yes, the system has failed."

Wu was speaking after a closed meeting in Roxbury with women from the nonprofit We Are Better Together Warren Daniel Hairston Project. The group works with women and girls impacted by homicide and incarceration to prevent cycles of violence and victimization.

Ruth Rollins, the founder and executive director of the We Are Better Together organization, would not go as far as Wu and use the word failure, but she was critical about the support and tracking systems that exist for people recently released from prison.

"I don't like the word, 'failed,' but I feel like we can do much better," Rollins said, according to WCVB.

Rollins also was asked specifically about the suspect in Tuesday's incident, reported by multiple outlets as 37-year-old Dashaun Wright, who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.

"I wouldn't say the system failed him, but there is a lack of accountability in how we track these people from when they're coming back out from incarceration," Rollins said. "He's one of many. Unfortunately, he just made the headlines. We have so many young men that are reentering back into the community that need mental health (and) need housing."

A domestic dispute at an apartment building on Ferndale Street in Dorchester led to Tuesday's confrontation, which reportedly came after a five-hour standoff that involved SWAT teams and police negotiators.

Police said Wright fired the first shots. Three officers were wounded and hospitalized, two with serious leg injuries, according to WCVB.

WCVB reported that officers fired back at Wright, who died of multiple gunshot wounds at the scene.

According to WCVB, in 2003, Wright was convicted for armed assault with intent to murder, possession of a firearm and being an armed career criminal, and he was sentenced to 14 to 16 years in prison.

He was released this past July from MCI-Cedar Junction, Massachusetts Department of Corrections, the station reported.

MassLive reported that all three officers wounded in the incident have now been released from the hospital. The last officer, Michael Ridge, was released from Boston Medical Center at 3 p.m. Thursday.

"It was a big 'happy to be out, thankful to be okay, and just great to be out with the family and going home,'” Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, told WPRI after speaking with Ridge Thursday. "This is a happy day for the men and women of the Boston Police Department, the patrolmen's association, the entire department."

Wu had canceled her scheduled Boston Police Department briefing this week in order to respond to Tuesday's violence and visit the injured officers in the hospital, according to WGBH.

Tuesday's exchange of gunfire happened just a few days after another Boston police officer was wounded in a confrontation with a suspect.

At around 6:15 p.m. Saturday in Dorchester, an officer responding to a domestic dispute was reportedly stabbed in the neck by a man, who then was fatally shot by another officer, according Boston Police Superintendent-in-chief Gregory Long.

The wounded officer suffered non-life-threatening stab wounds and was released from a hospital the following day.

The man who was shot, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to the Boston Herald.

Police told WCVB that a knife was recovered at the scene.