Police shoot, kill female carjacker

ATTLEBORO -- A knife-wielding woman carjacked two teenagers early yesterday, then led police on a chase at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour that ended on a Rhode Island highway ramp, where she was fatally shot by an officer who was pinned between his cruiser and her vehicle, law enforcement officials said.

State Police, who said it was unusual for a woman to be at the center of such a violent crime, identified the suspect as Bridget DeGrafft, also known as Bridget Baron, 49, whose last known address was near the Attleboro intersection where the carjacking took place.

Her motive was under investigation, State Police Major Steven O'Donnell said during a press conference. Nothing was found among the woman's possessions that would explain her behavior, he said. Law-enforcement officials said she had a history of petty crime.

The carjacking happened just before 1 a.m., when 18-year-old Joseph Monast was driving home with his friend, 17-year-old Matthew Diomede, both of whom will be seniors this fall at Attleboro High School.

Monast stopped to let a woman cross Locust Street, but, instead of crossing, the woman suddenly turned and loudly demanded that the teenagers get out of Monast's black 1996 Honda Passport. She kept her left hand behind her back and never made eye contact.

"Are you serious?" Diomede said he shouted at her.

" 'Yeah, I'm [expletive] serious,' " he quoted the woman as shouting. " 'Get out of the car!' "

Both started to get out of the sport utility vehicle, but Monast left it in drive, and when it started to roll, both jumped in again.

Suddenly, the woman moved from in front of the car to right next to Monast, trapping him in the driver's seat, he said. That was when Monast saw that the woman was holding a knife with a 13 1/2-inch blade. "I was terrified," he said in an interview. "I didn't know what she was going to do."

Monast got out of the vehicle, wriggling past the woman, who was loudly arguing with Diomede as she demanded that they empty their wallets and hand over their cash, ATM cards, bank account information, and cellphones, the teenagers said.

Diomede said he tossed his wallet and cellphone into the bushes so he would not have to hand them over to the woman.

The teenagers said they feared the woman would come after them, but a man in his 50s driving a small, white pickup truck reached the intersection, and the woman sped off in Monast's vehicle.

The man called police on his cellphone while Monast called his mother. Three cruisers arrived and, as police were interviewing them, the teenagers heard the police radio crackle with terse conversations. "In pursuit," Diomede recalled hearing. "Shots fired."

According to Rhode Island authorities and Attleboro police, a description of the stolen SUV was broadcast, and Pawtucket police spotted it speeding southbound on Interstate 95 near the Lonsdale Avenue exit at about 1:10 a.m.

The woman drove onto Route 10, where Rhode Island State Police joined the chase, O'Donnell said. The woman exited at the Reservoir Avenue exit in Cranston and hit a cruiser that had been put in position to block her. She slammed the car into reverse and drove across the ramp onto an embankment. When officers on foot tried to stop her, she backed up and drove directly at officers, who opened fire, police said.

But officers either missed her or she was not seriously hurt, because the woman then drove south on Route 10 and back onto I-95. On the interstate, a trooper positioned his cruiser in front of her and the woman suddenly veered off at the Jefferson Boulevard exit in Warwick.

At the end of the ramp, three police cruisers boxed her in, and officers approached on foot. The woman didn't turn her engine off and instead rocked the car back and forth, officials said. A Pawtucket officer, who became wedged between his cruiser and the suspect's vehicle, fired at the woman at least once, officials said.

The woman was pulled from the battered vehicle and rushed to Rhode Island Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:19 a.m.

The use of deadly force by police is being investigated by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch of Rhode Island, along with the five police departments involved.

Pawtucket Police Chief George Kelley said his officer was treated for minor leg injuries at Rhode Island Hospital and released.

O'Donnell said one trooper sustained a hand injury.

In the interview at Monast's home off Locust Street, the teenagers said they learned from police that the woman had been killed.

They described her as looking as if she had been living on the street for some time. "She looked rough," Diomede said. "She looked weathered."

They said they were relieved that they were not seriously harmed, but neither said they had sympathy for the woman.

"We're not hurt; we didn't lose anything," Diomede said. "She made some bad decisions."

Monast said: "I don't feel bad for her at all."

Some of DeGrafft's neighbors said she was an odd person who spent long hours in her backyard wearing a bathing suit while listening to James Taylor songs at a high volume. They said she appeared not to have a job, but might have had children, who visited her periodically.

Just hours before the carjacking, neighbors said she broke her pattern and played meditative music as well as songs by Taylor.

"It doesn't surprise me," neighbor Larry Lathum said of DeGrafft's actions. "It's just unfortunate."

John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.