The family of the man who was shot and killed by police at a Newbury gas station Sunday night says they are heartbroken and haunted with unanswered questions.
Authorities Monday identified the deceased suspect connected to carjackings in Massachusetts and New Hampshire as 31-year-old Thomas Murray, of Dracut.
“You can’t imagine what goes through your mind, what led up to this and why and how,” said Murray's aunt Cheryl Gordon. “If you knew Tommy, you knew he was a good kid, nice person, he had a big heart, it’s just devastating you know.”
Investigators say Murray was a suspect in at least three carjackings over the weekend, including one involving an elderly woman in Lowell, another involving a 5-year-old child in North Andover, and then the armed theft of a BMW X5 from the Tulley BMW dealership in Nashua.
“That’s when the suspect started to get violent, so that’s when he took the keys away from the salesman and there was a little bit of a struggle there,” Tulley BMW Sales Manager Tom Revetria said.
The sales associated was stabbed, suffering a minor cut to his wrist.
“We’re all thinking of him, we’re all sorry this happened, we’re grateful that he’s alive,” Gordon said.
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The BMW dealership was able to track the SUV to the Prime Gas Station on Central Street an hour after it was stolen, where Massachusetts State Police and Newbury police boxed Murray’s vehicle in, shooting and killing him, as he allegedly tried to ram his vehicle into their cruisers.
“When the actual confrontation happened I was just out by the door,” clerk Carlos Galeana recalled as he praised police for keeping him and his customers safe. “I am very grateful because we lost a life last night.”
The NBC10 Boston Investigators found that Murray did have a criminal record, but it was minimal with a 2008 larceny charge out of Stoughton.
The officer-involved shooting remains under investigation by the Essex District Attorney's office.
