WALTHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - A Middlesex County grand jury has indicted Peter Simon, 54 of Woodsville, New Hampshire for two counts of second degree murder and other charges in connection with fatally striking Waltham Police Officer Paul Tracey, 58 of Waltham and National Grid employee Roderick Jackson, 36 of Cambridge, officials announced Wednesday..
Peter Simon was operating a pickup truck eastbound on Totten Pond Road in Waltham around 4 p.m. on Dec. 6 when he pulled to the side of the road and suddenly turned back into the roadway striking a vehicle traveling eastbound, He then continued driving forward for approximately a quarter mile before fatally striking Waltham Police Officer Paul Tracey and Roderick Jackson.
After striking the victims, police say he continued on, striking multiple other vehicles before abandoning his truck and fleeing on foot. Then he encountered another Waltham officer who had responded to the scene, and allegedly pulled a knife on the officer before stealing his police cruiser and again fleeing and crashing the cruiser on Winter Street before he was arrested by a Waltham Police Officer.
The subsequent investigation and a reconstruction of the crash conducted by the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section concluded that he was accelerating at full throttle, traveling approximately 62-63 miles per hour at the time of the crash.
Peter Simon has been indicted on two counts of second degree murder, two counts of motor vehicle homicide, armed robbery, armed carjacking, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, four counts of operating to endanger, three counts of leaving the scene causing property damage, leaving the scene causing death, failure to stop for police, two counts of wanton destruction of property and resisting arrest.
He is currently being held without bail and will be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court at a later date.
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