Cambridge Officials, Residents Gather for Tense Meeting on Memorial Drive Shooting

More than 50 residents, city leaders, and state legislators gathered Tuesday for a tense community meeting on last week’s Memorial Drive shooting, pressing officials for answers after two people were left with life-threatening injuries.

The meeting, held at the Cambridge Community Center, was intended to give residents more information about the shooting and the city’s response. But it also became a forum for frustration, as residents questioned how the alleged shooter obtained a firearm and whether officials acted quickly enough in the days after the attack.

Tyler E. Brown allegedly fired at least 70 rounds near the intersection of River Street and Memorial Drive just before 1:30 p.m. last Monday, shooting sporadically as people scrambled to flee. Brown exchanged gunfire with a State Police officer and a civilian before he was struck in the “lower extremities,” officials said.

Brown and two victims were critically injured, but all are expected to survive.

Cambridge City Councilor E. Denise Simmons said the shooting was a very fearful moment for residents and praised CPD’s swift response.

“All of us seeing the footage of him walking in broad daylight with the AK-47 rifle, it was chilling, it was raging, and it forces us, every one of us, to confront the reality of what could have happened were it not for the swift and heroic response of our Cambridge Police Department,” Simmons said.

Simmons also raised concerns about Brown’s criminal history and questioned the effectiveness of the justice system.

“It raises serious questions about how this man is on our streets, how is he able to obtain such a lethal weapon, and about effectiveness of the systems that are supposed to prevent exactly this kind of tragedy,” Simmons said.

Brown was on parole at the time of the shooting, having recently finished a five-year prison sentence for shooting at two Boston Police officers in 2020. Court documents also showed that Brown had been released from a psychiatric hospital in the week before the shooting.

Prosecutors charged Brown with two counts of assault to murder with a firearm, and six other charges, including attempted assault with a weapon and illegal possession of a firearm. Brown entered a not guilty plea to all eight charges on Thursday, appearing virtually from his hospital bed for his arraignment hearing.

Throughout the meeting, residents pressed city officials about safety, questioning how Brown — with an extensive criminal history — obtained the assault weapon and what would prevent another shooting.

Some interrupted speakers to criticize the city and state’s response. Some said the meeting, held eight days after the shooting, came too late to support those affected.

Huang acknowledged the concerns about the timeline of the meeting, but said that the week buffer for incidents of this gravity is typical practice.

“I would say a week is a long time. We had tended to — and we’ve had discussions about this — but we have tended to have this community engagement one week later, partly because in the immediate aftermath of an event, there’s often not very much to share,” Huang said.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing, including tracking down how Brown obtained the assault weapon.

“It is often possible, especially for people who are not qualified to have a gun, to get different pieces of the gun and put a gun together. So we are working our way through that piece,” Ryan said.

City officials also outlined mental health resources for residents affected by the shooting, acknowledging the toll on the neighborhood, especially for those who live near the scene.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at ClaireMichal.154.