BOSTON — An investigation into a 2021 officer-involved shooting that killed suspected gunman Nathan Allen has found that the officer’s actions that day were justified, after a racially-motivated rampage left two Black bystanders dead and a community in shock and mourning, the district attorney said.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden on Tuesday released the final investigative finding and case file regarding the June 26, 2021 officer-involved shooting death of the 28-year-old Allen at Shirley and Cross streets in Winthrop.
Hayden determined that the involved officer’s actions “were lawful and reasonable exercises of self-defense and/or defense of others, and that no criminal charges are warranted.”
“Our investigation makes clear that the officer’s actions were justified that tragic day,” Hayden said in a statement. “Indeed, it is likely that this officer’s brave actions saved others from being injured or killed as a result of Nathan Allen’s racially-motivated rampage. This was a terrifying incident for Winthrop, rooted in Nathan Allen’s deep White Supremacist hatred. Winthrop leaders and residents deserve great credit for how they have moved to heal the wounds from that tragic day.”
The deadly 2021 rampage killed 68-year-old retired State Trooper Dave Green and 60-year-old Air Force veteran Ramona Cooper. Investigators said at the time that the victims were targeted because of the color of their skin.
The vicious killings shocked and horrified the community of Winthrop and put the town in the national spotlight.
On Saturday, June 26, 2021, around 2:45 p.m., police said Allen stole a box truck, crashed it into a residential building on Veterans Road, got out of the truck and shot Green and Cooper, who just happened to be outside and in that area, dead before officers at the scene returned fire, fatally wounding him.
Then-Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said following the killings that Allen, the gunman, had written “anti-Semitic and racist statements against Black individuals” and that Allen also had “anti-Semitic rhetoric” written in his hand.
Days after the rampage, more than a thousand people came together on the Winthrop Town Hall lawn to remember the two victims.
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