Man shot and killed outside downtown Plymouth restaurant after apparent road rage incident
PLYMOUTH - A 41-year-old man was shot and killed in downtown Plymouth near several restaurants Friday night after an apparent road rage incident. A 23-year-old man has been taken into custody.
Plymouth police said they received 911 calls reporting the shooting in the public parking lot on Middle Street at about 5:45 p.m. The first officer to arrive at the scene confronted the suspect and arrested David Jerome of Plymouth.
Witnesses say that they saw Jerome attempting to help the victim, 41-year-old Brent Berkeley of Plymouth, after he allegedly shot him. Berkeley was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth where he died.
After an initial investigation, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said that they determined that Berekely, operating the Jeep SUV, and Jerome, operating the Toyota RAV4 had a minor car accident, which led to "a physical interaction" before the shooting happened.
"We live in a world now where many people have short fuses. And terrible things happen very quickly, they can escalate very quickly. Look at the aftermath. Look what happens. Look at how one family has lost someone forever," Cruz said.
The investigation also determined that Jerome's 18-month-old son was in the backseat of his car at the time of the shooting.
Jerome is legally licensed to carry a gun but has since had his license suspended. He is charged with murder, reckless endangerment of a child, and more. He will be arranged in court on Monday.
"Extremely upsetting"
The deadly shooting happened just off Main Street where restaurants and bars were packed with people eating dinner.
"It was first the bartender who noticed the shots. She alerted the bar, and then everybody immediately both backed up and looked outside the window," a man told WBZ-TV. "Everybody witnessed something that was extremely upsetting."
"I park in this area all the time and it's just devastating," Peter Litchfield said.
WBZ's helicopter captured the crime scene overhead, centered around two cars close to each other in the parking lot.
The nearby Speedwell Tavern posted a message on Facebook asking for "space and respect for our family during this extremely difficult time." They later posted a statement on Facebook reading, in part, "There are no words to express how we feel about the tragedy that occurred last night. We are broken."
"Seemed like a very nice guy and this is just awful and there's so much tension going on," Litchfield said about the victim.
Police are still investigating the incident.