Police commissioner helps nab alleged shoplifter

Commissioner Edward F. Davis was grocery shopping.

Apparently, Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis keeps working when he's off the clock.

On Wednesday evening, as Davis entered the Roche Bros. in West Roxbury, he saw a man drop his groceries and bolt out the door, according to Officer Q Riley, Davis's security detail, who was with him at the time.

No stranger to a crime scene, Davis figured out what was going on when store security began running after the man. He then alerted Riley and piled into the waiting car with the store's security officers.

"He's out there a lot, and his natural police instincts take charge," Riley said. "He's still a cop at heart."

Riley drove down Belgrade Avenue as Davis scanned the street.

That's when "the commissioner saw through the bushes, hiding behind a tree, a leg" with the same tattoo he had noticed on the man running from the store.

"He says: 'Q. Q. Right there. Behind the tree. That's our man,' " Riley said.

The two men approached the suspect and arrested him. Christopher McSherry, 26, of West Roxbury was arraigned today on one count of shoplifting and released on his own recognizance on Army orders to return to Fort Benning, Ga., according to the Suffolk district attorney's office.

As Riley took McSherry into custody, the prisoner heard Riley address Davis as "commissioner."

"He turned with his eyes wide open in surprise, and he says, 'You're the commissioner?' " Riley said. Davis told him it was "pretty much his unlucky day."

RYAN KOST