Scrutiny over Massachusetts State Police's handling of murder investigations has boiled over in the past year.
The Karen Read murder trial and the Sandra Birchmore case — only recently classified as a homicide because the federal government stepped in — have garnered headlines across the region and the nation.
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Those cases reignited passions for Jennifer Root Bannon, who lost her brother in an officer-involved shooting in February 2020. A Massachusetts State Police trooper was one of the responding officers to fire a weapon that day.
Root Bannon left her job in private equity in 2018 to become a part-time real estate manager. When her brother, Juston Root, was shot and killed by five Boston police officers and a state trooper, she shifted her focus once again, this time to a cause close to her heart.
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This is part of our series, "Commonwealth Confidential: State of Policing." Learn much more on police in Massachusetts here.
Root, 41, was leaving Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, near Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he frequently received treatment for his schizoaffective disorder, which involves symptoms of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder.
Boston police received a call from hospital security, claiming that Root was armed. Ultimately, the object in question was only a paintball marker, a law enforcement investigation found.
In surveillance video obtained by NBC10 Boston, a Boston police officer who encountered Root on the sidewalk reacted when it appeared Root was pulling out a gun. As he stumbled back and fell off a curb, the officer fired his weapon, striking Root and a hospital security employee in the area.
Injured, Root got into his car and drove away. Police pursued him and the chase picked up speed before Root eventually crashed along Route 9 in Brookline, near a shopping plaza.
Traffic camera video shows Root stumbling out of the damaged car and limping down the sidewalk, leaving a trail of blood. As he approached a bed of mulch, a bystander who happened to be an emergency medical technician ran toward Root to provide care.
Moments later, six armed law enforcement officers swarmed the scene. Bodycam footage shows police commanding the EMT to run from the area.
Within seconds of shouting commands, the officers opened fire, shooting Root 31 times at close range, according to his family. He died after being transported to the hospital. The bodycam video is obscured and does not show Root's actions in the moments before shooting, only the yelling from officers and the subsequent sound of gunfire.
A month later, Boston Police Officers Joseph McMenamy, David Godin, Leroy Fernandes, Brenda Figueroa, and Corey Thomas, and Massachusetts State Trooper Paul Conneely — the six who shot and killed Root — were all cleared by Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey, who ruled the fatal use of force was justified.
"Anyone that has a 30-day death investigation should be questioned. I can tell just from the onset they weren't interested in the truth. They were interested in exonerating those officers," Root Bannon said. "Everything down to their interviews filled with leading questions."
When asked how her brother's case should have been handled, Root Bannon emphasized her desire for an independent investigation.
"The investigation they did was pathetic. I mean, I was like, in shock. I like reading it. I didn't even know that a lot of times law enforcement investigates themselves," Root Bannon said. "So it's not that we're never going to get a transparent investigation when we have that sort of closeness. We have to have people outside of Massachusetts law enforcement taking a look."
A spokesperson for the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office said the decision to rule the shooting justified had been upheld on appeal in federal court.
"No new evidence has been presented to the office at this time that would warrant a reevaluation of the findings," the statement said.
NBC10 Boston teamed up with journalism students at Boston University's College of Communication for a deeper dive into the State Police. In an in-depth reporting class taught by NBC10 Boston Investigator Ryan Kath, we explored the culture inside the academy, how murders are investigated in Massachusetts, concerns about lack of transparency, complaints about racial and gender discrimination, and what it will take to restore public trust.
Homicides in Massachusetts are always investigated at the county level through 11 "separate siloed units," as criminal justice journalist Susan Zalkind puts it. Each unit has state police detectives embedded within district attorney offices, with a 12th unit in the attorney general's office.
"Massachusetts is unique in that we're the only state in New England and one of the only states in the country that doesn't have a top-tier centralized unit for investigating murder," she said during an interview with NBC10 Boston.
Zalkind, author of the book "Waltham Murders," has previously delved into the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office's handling of the investigation of a triple homicide in 2011 and its similarities in the lack of transparency with the high-profile Karen Read case.
She points to the fact that the DA was not looking into Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a suspect, though his name surfaced repeatedly related to the Waltham murders. A year and a half later, federal authorities named Tsarnaev as a prime suspect in the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. He was killed while on the run from authorities.
This case and others highlight the problems that district attorneys' offices have had with investigating homicides in siloed environments, susceptible to small-town conflicts of interest, according to Zalkind. Conflicts of interest are a frequent concern when district attorneys investigate law enforcement's use of deadly force.
More from our "Commonwealth Confidential" series
We contacted the office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan, and a spokesperson responded by explaining that her office adopted judicial inquests for officer-involved shootings in 2018. According to Ryan's office, these inquests ensure "that conclusions of fact and law are made by an impartial third-party legal expert and factfinder."
Ryan was not the district attorney at the time of the Waltham homicides. Her spokesperson added the case remains open and active.
Massachusetts homicide clearance rates prove there's no reason to change the approach, state police supporters say. According to data obtained from state police, 94.4% of homicides have been solved by these detective units over the past five years. The national average hovers around 50%.
But it's important to point out that "solved" is defined as an arrest being made or an arrest warrant being granted for the suspect. For example, the Read case is considered "solved" even though she is awaiting a second trial next year; Birchmore's death was never classified by state authorities as a murder case.
Federal authorities later intervened and accused former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell of murdering Birchmore and staging her death to look like a suicide. Farwell remains in federal custody after waiving his detention hearing.
"If we can't protect some 23-year-old pregnant woman who's been groomed and sexually abused by a police officer for years, what are we doing? We don't have a criminal justice system because that is not justice," said Djuna Perkins, former chief of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office's domestic violence unit. "So I'm kind of in the school that when you see a problem out there, you roll up your sleeves and you go and fix it."
Perkins now heads her law practice. She's troubled by what she's seen from the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office and plans to run against Morrissey in 2026. The Birchmore death investigation tipped her over the edge.
Massachusetts State Police initially investigated and did not pursue charges against the ex-Stoughton police detective, Matthew Farwell, even though he was the last person to see Birchmore alive and the pair exchanged thousands of graphic text messages.
The intense scrutiny surrounding high-profile cases is part of a larger cultural trend of police distrust, according to associate professor and department chair of criminology at Mount Wachusett Community College, James Bigelow, who had a 24-year career with the Massachusetts State Police.
Bigelow worked multiple positions, including being a detective assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney's Office, and retired as a lieutenant. He told us he loved his career and "would have done it for free," expressing frustration about the negative public sentiment about the state's largest law enforcement agency.
"The problem is when something goes sideways, it's newsworthy — and it is," he said. "And so you've got one situation where it looks bad. Well, what about the other 2,300 guys on the state police that are out there every day doing the right thing? It's not newsworthy."
Regarding the system that assigns state police detectives to district attorneys' offices, Bigelow doesn't think there is a better way.
"We have the experience and the resources that just no other agency does," Bigelow said.
These resources include "a nationally accredited crime lab," drones, and units specializing in different crimes. Additionally, he disagrees that an independent agency would provide more expertise in cases such as those of Root, Read, and Birchmore, and he disputed the notion that conflict of interest frequently arises in death investigations.
"Does an independent agency have the experience and the package that we can bring? I don't think so," Bigelow said. "I don't see the conflict as something that recurs over and over. It's very rare, and in my experience, it's addressed appropriately."
According to Massachusetts State Police spokesperson Tim McGuirk, the primary benefit of the current system is the "close coordination between prosecutors and investigators to make decisions together about investigative efforts, direction, and strategies."
He added that the system "provides each district attorney with a team of dedicated, high-quality death investigators while allowing them to request personnel with expertise in their other priority areas such as sexual assaults, cyber crime, human trafficking, and narcotics related investigations."
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey made a splash in October when she hired Lt. Col. Geoffrey D. Noble of the New Jersey State Police as the next leader of the Massachusetts State Police. This was the first time an outsider was appointed to this position.
Noble comes from a state where officer-involved shootings are investigated by an independent agency, a policy adopted in 2019. Before that law took effect, law enforcement-involved shootings were investigated at the county level, just like in Massachusetts today.
Now that the Attorney General's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability investigates fatal police encounters in New Jersey, the office feels it "helps promote transparency, fairness, and justice for all," according to an agency spokesperson.
New Jersey's process includes a "conflict check," in which the independent investigative team determines whether there are any actual or potential conflicts of interest in a case. If a conflict exists, the attorney general either removes the conflicted individual or assigns a new investigative team to handle the matter, according to the statement received from the Attorney General's Office.
Along with the conflict check, within the first 72 hours since the shooting occurred, evidence is also collected after an immediate response to the crime scene. By the 20-day mark of the shooting, bodycam footage is released to the public after initial witness interviews are completed, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.
We've asked Massachusetts State Police whether Noble will advocate for a similar investigative approach in the Bay State. McGuirk said any change to the current structure would require agreement from the 11 DAs, the state police and the Healey administration.
"This regionalization would look and feel very similar to the model we have today, but it would disrupt the fusions that have developed over many decades," he said in a statement.
The issue of law enforcement accountability is now a driving force in Root Bannon's life. She regularly organizes standouts, whether they be at the site of Root's death or outside the Norfolk County DA's office.
Along the way, Root Bannon has garnered backing from supporters of Read and Birchmore, who, like herself, are fed up with the Massachusetts State Police homicide investigation process.
It's been over four years since her brother was killed, but Root Bannon is feeling "recharged" when it comes to seeking out justice. She told us she's connected with about 500 families across the country that have been impacted by officer-involved shootings. She's petitioning for her brother's death to be investigated independently. It has been signed over 23,000 times.
"They can't investigate themselves," Root Bannon told us. "This incident has profoundly changed my life. And even though this is almost five years ago, it still feels like it was yesterday because I live and breathe it every single day. And I'm on this journey in this fight for the truth pretty much every single day."
This story was written and reported by BU students Cloutier and Maniace and edited by Kath
