BOSTON (WHDH) - A Massachusetts state trooper accused of opening fire on an ATV rider on Interstate 93 in February 2018 pleaded not guilty to assault charges on Thursday as prosecutors highlighted racist, disparaging, and vulgar comments he allegedly posted online prior to the shooting.
Trooper Matthew Sheehan was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon for being the only one of the 13 officers to open fire while responding to a report of a group of eight individuals acting recklessly while riding ATVs and dirt bikes on Feb. 24, according to Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
Prior to the encounter, prosecutors say Sheehan retrieved his department-issued semi-automatic rifle from his cruiser and fired two shots at one ATV, causing a bullet to enter the side of the ATV’s tire and strike the rider in the foot.
Seven out of eight of the suspects riding recklessly were arrested. All but one of their cases have since been resolved.
Sheehan initially claimed that he fired because he was in imminent danger but prosecutors said he has since changed his account of the event.
“His original version of the event was that the ATV was driving directly towards him. He later switched it that he was driving diagonally towards him,” a prosecutor told the court.
The prosecution also brought up controversial comments that Sheehan posted on a police blog prior to the shooting.
“The kind reading of these comments would say that the comments are racially tinged, promote violence, promote the disparagement of women, poor people, the language in them is vulgar,” a prosecutor said.
Prosecutors hope the posts will be admissable come trial. A tentative trial date has been set for June 1, 2020.
Sheehan is due back in court for a pre-trial hearing in December.
He was suspended without pay in 2018.
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