A police officer who shot and killed a man who had just shot two Black people moments earlier in the Boston neighborhood of Winthrop in 2021 used appropriate force to defend himself and others, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said Tuesday.
After emerging from a stolen truck that he had smashed into a building in the hamlet near Logan International Airport, Nathan Allen, 28, shot and murdered David Green, a former Massachusetts State Police trooper, and Romana Cooper, an Air Force veteran, officials said.
Green and Cooper were characterized as “innocent bystanders” by officials. Winthrop Police Sgt. Nicholas Bettano fatally shot Allen.
“Our investigation shows that the officer’s actions that tragic day were justified.” “It is very likely that this officer’s courageous actions saved others from being injured or killed as a result of Nathan Allen’s racially motivated rampage,” Hayden said in a written statement.
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“For Winthrop, this was a terrifying incident, rooted in Nathan Allen’s deep White Supremacist hatred.” “Winthrop leaders and residents deserve a lot of credit for moving so quickly to heal the wounds of that tragic day,” he continued.
According to a report released Tuesday, Hayden stated that on June 26, 2021, Bettano responded to a report of an active shooter. Allen had already shot Green and Cooper with a 9 mm Smith & Wesson when Bettano arrived. According to authorities, Allen had no criminal past, a weapons license, and three guns.
According to authorities, Allen was originally seen barefoot and videotaped on surveillance camera wandering near a cemetery and into a school baseball field. He then stole a box truck and crashed into another automobile and a small structure, according to authorities.
Allen got into another car and drove away. He approached Cooper, 60, fatally shooting her multiple times at point blank range before fleeing via an alley, where he killed Green and threw away the empty gun.
He pulled out another loaded rifle and aimed it at three people in a vehicle, but he did not fire. When Bettano arrived on the scene, he was able to get other spectators out of harm’s way and convinced Allen to lay down his rifle. When he refused and raised his revolver, Bettano shot him four times, according to investigators.
Police discovered hundreds of rounds of ammo and many publications by Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski inside Allen’s residence. According to authorities, they also discovered diaries with hand-drawn swastikas and essays about anarchy and white supremacy.
Pages from Allen’s notebook were disclosed, in which he lauded “the white race as superior” and referred to Black people in viciously racist ways, claiming at one point that “racism is healthy and natural.”
Following the incident, relatives and friends gathered to honor Green and Cooper, who were remembered as a respected state trooper and a cherished Air Force veteran.
Green, 68, resigned from state police in 2016 after almost 40 years in law enforcement, according to state police authorities at the time of the incident.
According to the investigators, Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2014 and a doctorate in physical therapy from the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in 2021. He and his wife had resided in Winthrop, Massachusetts.
