DA: Deadly force justified in shooting by Yarmouth police
(Bill Greene/ Globe Staff/file)
Flowers and tire tracks in July on the lawn in Yarmouth where Andre L. Martins was killed.
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff
HYANNIS -- An inquiry by police and prosecutors has determined that a Yarmouth patrolman's use of deadly force was justified in July when he fired three shots at a car at the end of a 100-mile-per-hour chase and killed a house painter from Brazil.
 Andre L. Martins |
Officer Christopher Van Ness faced "death or imminent grave bodily injury" as the Lincoln Continental sped toward him on July 27, fearing he would be run over or crushed against his own cruiser, said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael D. O'Keefe today at a press conference. The first of Van Ness's three shots hit the 25-year-old driver, Andre L. Martins, who died as the bullet tore through his heart and lungs.
Martins "was in control of a deadly weapon, an automobile, and he operated it in a reckless manor without consideration of others, including his passenger, his girlfriend, who pleaded for him to stop," O'Keefe said.
Authorities issued a 218-page report that detailed the investigation of the shooting, which rocked Cape Cod's 14,000-member Brazilian community. Martins was a father of two.
Before making the findings public, O'Keefe said he spoke with Martins's father in Brazil, the country's ambassador in Boston, and leaders of the Brazilian community on the Cape.
Martins's father, Luiz Carlos de Castro Martins, a reserve police officer in Brazil, told a Brazilian newspaper in July that his son may have been afraid to stop because he was not in the United States legally. Court records indicated that Martins's work visa had expired.
According to police and witnesses, Martins tried to flee from an early morning traffic stop. After a chase, he pulled onto a front yard on Baxter Avenue and was ordered to get out of his car with his hands up. Authorities said he ignored those orders and instead drove at the officers.
Van Ness fired three shots at the car, according to the investigation. The first struck Martins. The second skipped off the car's roof. The third shattered the vehicle's rear windshield.
Van Ness has been on the force for three years and had previously served in the Harwich Police Department. O'Keefe described him in July as an "exemplary officer" who was upset about the shooting.
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