Man, Hands Up, Asked Person Nearby To Call 911: Witness

BROOKLINE, MA — One of the men an off-duty police officer pointed a gun at on Route 9 had his hands up, according to the statement of a woman who witnessed last week's incident.

"All I remember him saying is 'call 911' to a random woman driving on the other side of Route 9," said Adelaida Bedoya, who was one of many who called 911 about the incident last Wednesday.

Bedoya told Patch Tuesday she was driving into Chestnut Hill's The Street when she saw traffic stopped. A man, later identified as an off-duty Brookline officer, was pointing a gun at two men.

EDITORS NOTE: An earlier version of the article reported that the man "begged" for his life. While this was taken from the witness’s direct statement, she said she reflected on what she saw and doesn’t feel that was quite right. This article has been changed to reflect the most up to date and accurate information we have at this time.

ALSO READ >> Letter To Editor: Off Duty Officer Points Gun Story Inflammatory

Several called police just after 4 p.m. and described what they saw: a white man pointing a gun at a black man who had his hands up on Route 9, on Wed. July 18, according to police records.

Bedoya was driving into the shopping area just off Route 9 when she saw the commotion. She described to Patch that a number of people were watching in shock as a man with a gun pointed it at two other men, apparently threatening to shoot them if they didn't get out of the car and put their hands on the car, she said.

She said she'd never seen anything like that before and wasn't sure it was real, so she pulled over to see what was going on.

Several people were parked in the parking lot between the gas station at Hammond Street and the ATM machine. Bedoya said she heard one of the men ask a passerby to call 911. A woman told them she would.

"All the men were screaming at each other but the white man with the gun seemed to be more aggressive and threatening then the other two men," who seemed calm Bedoya told Patch.

She said when police arrived, an officer put one of the men in handcuffs and told the other to sit on the ground.

"They were questioning them while the other white man was walking freely and calmly with the other policemen," she said. When asked, she said she assumed the man was an under cover police officer at the time.

Bedoya said it appeared an altercation started because the men scratched the officer's truck. "I kept seeing him point to a part of his car while discussing with another cop," she said.

She said she also noticed a woman passenger in the truck.

Catch up on the story here >> Off-Duty Cop Draws Gun On Unarmed Men

It later came out the man holding the gun was an off-duty officer. He told his colleagues he'd chased the two, who were in a BMW, down because they'd crashed into his car. The driver, meanwhile, said he was just looking for a place to pull over.

Does race matter?

It's unclear if the officer ever saw the faces of the people in the car since he came up behind them when he followed them to the spot and pulled them over. But the incident comes amid heightened tensions and a national conversation about the perception of racism within police departments. Brookline has also had conversations about the role of race in town at the high school, within the police department and town.

"The bottom line is once you look at the statistics you see that race does matter because incidents seem to happen when you have a certain racial makeup," said Malia Lazu the founder of Urban Labs a diversity and inclusion consulting firm based in Boston.

"There's a long history of police acting out of protocol regardless of race, but you can't ignore the statistics that you see about escalation and interaction when you seem to have a cop and a black person," she said.

But she added, the race of the police officer is less important in instances like these than, the race of the people on the receiving end of having a gun pointed at them, pointing at what happened to Sean Bell in New York.

"There's something about the power of the position, I think, that leads to some of this excessive use of force. But what seems to be consistent is the color of people harassed," she said.

Police officers are not supposed to use their personal cars for motor vehicle stops, or really, most other minor violations, according to the Brookline Police Department's policies and procedures.

There are a couple of exceptions if the off-duty officers are not personally involved in the incident and the arresting officer makes sure to identify themselves.

Catch up on the story here >> Off-Duty Cop Draws Gun On Unarmed Men

Were you there? Email Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com

EDITORS NOTE: Patch changed the original headline and lead of the story to reflect the updated information we got from the source after publication. Bedoya originally stated, as reported, she saw a man with his hand up "begging" for his life using those words. Upon a day's reflection she retracted that statement and said she did not actually hear him say anything to the off duty officer.

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Photo courtesy Adelaida Bedoya