< Back to front page Text size – +

Elderly couple hear shooting as Everett police chase bank robbery suspect

E-mail|Link August 31, 2010 03:32 PM

Jim Davis / Globe Staff

Everett police search for evidence in the backyard of a Tufts Avenue home where a man was shot as police chased a bank robbery suspect.

By Milton J. Valencia and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

EVERETT -- A man was shot on Tufts Avenue this afternoon, shocking an elderly couple who heard the gunshots as Everett police pursued a bank robbery suspect into their backyard. At least one officer fired a service weapon today, city officials said.

Joseph Salemi said he was at a North End restaurant where he works as a chef when his parents telephoned him and told him that their backyard of their home at 14 Tufts Ave. had suddenly become a crime scene.

"Out of all the houses in Everett, it has to happen here,'' Salemi said while standing outside the family home this afternoon. He added that "as long as my family is OK'' he was going to stay calm.

Salemi said his parents were upset by the events that unfolded near their house, but were in otherwise good shape. "They just heard two gunshots and stayed put,'' he said.

The incident began around noon and started with an attempted bank robbery on Main Street, near its intersection with Winthrop Street, according to the office of Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr.

While police were responding to investigate the incident, at least one Everett officer returned fire with a service weapon, the mayor's office said.

The bank robbery suspect made his way onto Tufts Avenue where police confronted him in the backyard.

Robert Scott, a Saugus carpenter, told WHDH-TV that he was working on a house on Tufts Avenue when he saw an unmarked police cruiser drive in reverse down the street.

An officer got out and shouted to Scott, "Which way did he go?"

Scott said he told the officer he had seen someone run into parking lot on Tufts Avenue, and then saw the officer run onto the property.

"A few seconds later, I heard pop, pop,'' Scott said.

A few minutes after that, he saw police and EMTs with a man in a stretcher. "He was in the gurney, screaming,'' Scott said.

The man was rushed to an area hospital; his condition was not immediately available.

The scene is being investigated and officials expect a more detailed account to be released by the police department later today.

Investigators from Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.'s office are en route to the scene at the request of Everett police, a Leone spokeswoman said. District attorneys investigate police-involved shootings.