Police were justified when they shot 19-year-old Jaymil Ellerbe to death in an exchange of gunfire during a chase from a Dorchester playground in the summer of 2019, the DA announced.
“This finding takes into full account the events of that tragic day, and we issue it entirely aware of the lasting trauma for everyone involved in and affected by those events, including Mr. Ellerbe’s family and the officers at the scene,” Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden announced.
The finding confirms the conclusion reached by the previous DA, Rachael Rollins, who now serves as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, whose eight-page investigation report was also released Wednesday.
“Rollins’s investigation, and Hayden’s review, determined that the involved officers’ actions were lawful and reasonable exercises of self-defense and/or defense of others, and that no criminal charges are warranted,” according to the office’s statement.
On June 24, 2019, police responded to multiple 9-1-1 calls reporting shots fired at the Geneva Avenue side of the Doherty-Gibson Playground of Town Field Park, where, according to Rollins’ report, up to 15 gunshots had been picked up by ShotSpotter acoustic sensors.
A security guard working at the nearby Bank of America ran to help a person in the park he believed to have been shot and told a police dispatcher that he saw two shooters — one, later identified as Ellerbe, in a red shirt and another, later identified as Ernest Watkins, in a white shirt — who had been firing weapons in a basketball court.
A group of Boston Police assigned to the Bicycle Unit were in the nearby Dorchester Avenue Dunkin’ Donuts where a civilian came in and said someone was shooting up the park. The officers rushed to the park and the two suspected shooters scattered, with Watkins fleeing up Mather Street and Ellerbe fleeing to Penhallow Street, according to previous Herald reporting.
Rollins’ report says that as he was running, Ellerbe “dropped his firearm, picked it back up, and ignored repeated and continuous commands to drop his weapon. … Mr. Ellerbe stopped his flight and took aim at (two officers). It was only at this point that gunshots were exchanged between the officers and Mr. Ellerbe.”
Her report came to the conclusion that then-Police Commissioner William Gross the night of the shooting: “He pointed the firearm at the officers and discharged the firearm at the officers. The officers returned fire, striking the suspect.”
Rollins’ investigation used recorded interviews of more than 20 civilians and all the officers involved; the police radio transmissions; video from body cameras, cellphones and surveillance cameras; ShotSpotter data; police reports; physical evidence; and other evidence to come to a conclusion as to the justification of the shooting, according to her report.
