Generic image of sirens from a police cruiser.
A man has been charged after state and local police were surrounded while trying to make an arrest in Boston last month, prosecutors said Thursday.
A Massachusetts State Police trooper was placed in a headlock, punched and kicked during the altercation on Feb. 27 in Roxbury, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. They said Dashuan James, a 19-year-old from Dorchester, was charged Monday.
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James was filming a teenager's arrest, at one point sticking his phone in an officer's face, according to prosecutors. They said he was identified, through video from the scene and information given by troopers, as a person who'd attacked a trooper early on.
The incident began about 3 p.m. near Washington Park Mall, where state and local police arrested a 17-year-old over a firearm, according to prosecutors. Another youth ran off, and a gun was found where he'd run.
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About an hour later near Malcolm X Park, police were called for a report of gunshots and a person with a gun. They then spotted someone who matched the description get into a vehicle on Martin Luther King Boulevard, prosecutors said.
The officers approached the vehicle, leading to about 20 people surrounding the officers, one of whom was knocked to the ground, according to prosecutors. The group was trying to stop the person from being taken into custody.
James was arrested in the aftermath, according to the district attorney's office. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to his arrest; he was released on personal recognizance ahead of a May 2 pretrial hearing.
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None of the other people involved in the searches and altercation were identified.
“This was an extraordinary violation of civic order and a willful, reckless assault on the very people tasked with securing peace and safety in our neighborhoods. These troopers and officers found themselves in a violent and dangerous situation and proceeded to handle themselves with the highest level of professionalism,” District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
