Cart
0
Woman Says A Marine Saved Her During Shootout
A former Marine and a State Police trooper stopped a gunman who fired 60 rounds at cars on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, leaving two people critically injured. The shooter had been released from a psychiatric hospital three days before the attack.
WCVB - PHOTO: Massachusetts State Police said at least one person was left wounded after a gunman began shooting into traffic in Cambridge on May 11, 2026.
Less than two hours before the shooting, Tyler Brown called his parole officer.
He told them these people were going to pay. He did not say who he meant.
Gear Spotlight- What Our Readers Are Picking Up
Three days before that phone call, Brown had been released from a psychiatric hospital. He walked out. He got a gun. And on Monday afternoon he walked down the middle of Memorial Drive in Cambridge and started shooting at everything in sight.
At least 50 to 60 rounds were fired. A dozen vehicles were struck. Two men in separate cars suffered life-threatening injuries, one of them an MBTA bus driver. People abandoned their cars and ran. Some hid underneath their own vehicles.
People were jumping from their cars, scattering in every direction. Joggers, cyclists and residents along the Charles River scattered in panic.
And then two people ran the other way.
State Trooper Landon Veney and a former Marine, a firearms instructor who was driving south on Memorial Drive at the time, moved toward the gunman as everyone else fled. The Marine had a 9mm Glock in a safe in the backseat of his car.
Both the trooper and the civilian went toward the suspect with their weapons to end the situation.
One of the people caught in the middle was Rachel Saveriano. She froze in her car, not knowing what to do.
The Marine came to her first.
He went around his car, pulled open her door and made himself a human barricade. He told her to run. She ran as fast as she could and did not stop.
She later called him a hero. She said he saved her life and the lives of many others.
The Marine fired eight rounds after seeing Brown open fire on Trooper Veney. Video from neighbors shows Brown falling to the ground, then throwing his gun as he lay on his back.
Brown was shot multiple times and taken into custody.
If you have followed this far, here is the part that makes this more than a story about courage.
Tyler Brown previously served time in prison for shooting at Boston police officers in 2020, while already on probation for a 2014 conviction for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
He was released from prison in May last year to serve the remainder of his sentence under parole supervision. Less than two hours before Monday's shooting, his parole officer flagged to police that Brown had relapsed on crack cocaine and was ready to end his life.
Police were already looking for him when the shooting started.
When Brown was sentenced to prison in 2021 for opening fire on Boston Police officers, the DA's office had asked for 10 to 12 years. The judge gave him five to six. After Monday's shooting, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Union posted on social media that the 2020 sentence was a ball drop.
A man with a violent history targeting police officers was given a lighter sentence than prosecutors asked for. He was released early. His parole officer flagged him as dangerous hours before the shooting. And the system had no mechanism to stop what happened next.
Two people are fighting for their lives in Boston hospitals.
Governor Maura Healey said she spoke with both the trooper and the Marine to thank them personally, calling their actions a reflection of the very best of public service under extraordinarily dangerous circumstances.
The Marine has not been publicly named. He was on his way somewhere when he heard gunshots and decided to drive toward them instead.
That decision saved lives on Memorial Drive. The question of why Tyler Brown was free to walk down that street is a question Cambridge, Boston and the courts are going to have to answer.
Editor's Note: The Cambridge Memorial Drive shooting raises urgent questions about the intersection of mental health treatment, parole supervision and public safety. The heroism of the former Marine and Trooper Landon Veney prevented a far worse outcome. But the system failures that put Tyler Brown back on the street deserve just as much scrutiny as the bravery that stopped him.
