The man accused of unleashing gunfire in a crowded Massachusetts street audaciously slept through his arraignment on Thursday, as prosecutors detailed the shocking accusations against him.
Tyler Brown, attending the hearing remotely from his hospital bed, appeared nestled under blankets with his eyes closed, while his head occasionally lolled side to side, according to bizarre video footage. His two attorneys were present on either side of his bed, ready to represent him.
The defense team, granted permission to address the court for Brown, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The charges include two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and possession of a firearm without a license.
The 46-year-old, with a lengthy criminal history, had been released from a psychiatric facility just the previous Friday. According to court documents and prosecutors, he seriously wounded two men by firing over 70 bullets indiscriminately with an assault-style rifle on Memorial Drive on Monday afternoon.
Earlier that day, Brown, who was on probation for a 2021 attempt to kill a police officer, reportedly contacted his parole officer in a distressed and intoxicated state.
A known crack cocaine user, Brown admitted to relapsing the night before and expressed “suicidal thoughts” during the call. He then FaceTimed his case manager, visibly holding the gun that authorities would later recover at the scene of the shooting, according to a Medford prosecutor present at the hearing.
“These people are going to pay and I’m not going to go back to prison,” a strung-out Brown said during the video call, and claimed that he’d committed murders that he’d never been caught for, according to the attorney and court documents.
The parole officer took a screenshot of the crazed criminal wielding a rifle in the call and forwarded it to the authorities.
Brown – whose lengthy rap sheet includes a 2021 conviction for trying to kill a Boston cop, as well as an armed robbery in Michigan and drug offenses in New Hampshire – allegedly called his parole officer a third time a few minutes later.
During that conversation, “he said that he was no longer Tyler Brown and he was going to be representing his shooter’s name,” the prosecutor said. “They talked for another minute or so as he was holding the firearm and he was repeating that he wasn’t going back to jail and made suicidal statements again.”
While cops tried to track down his location using his cell phone number, Brown was allegedly unleashing a barrage of over 70 bullets on the street, which was full of cars sitting in traffic.
One man sustained a gunshot to the back of his head while sitting in his car, and another was shot approximately four times in one leg, the prosecutor said. The latter victim is still in the hospital for his injuries.
“There was also a woman who was sitting in her vehicle who described a bullet passing through her car very close to her jacket as she sat in traffic,” the lawyer said.
The suspect allegedly began firing at a state trooper who arrived on the scene, but was taken down when the trooper and a Marine veteran with a licensed firearm returned fire – striking him “multiple times in his extremities,” the prosecutor said.
Police later recovered the multi-caliber BCI-Defense Model FF-15 and more than 70 spent casings at the horrifying scene, where Brown’s “progression and shooting” was captured in “multiple videos” taken by civilians and surveillance cameras, the attorney told the judge.
Mass. Judge Janet Sanders gave Brown a five to six-year prison sentence and admitted she was “taking a chance” on him after he was convicted of trying to kill a cop in 2020 – despite receiving striking victim impact statements that warned he “would hurt or at worse kill someone” when released back into the community.
At the time of that particular shooting, he was on probation following an assault conviction.
Brown – who has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression – was released from the medium-security lockup MCI Shirley one year ago.
His next court appearance was scheduled for May 21.
