BOSTON (WHDH) - The mother of a man who was shot to death by police after a confrontation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston Friday led to a chase into Braintree questioned whether he had a gun at the start of the fatal incident.
Officers responded to a report of a man with a gun near Brigham and Women’s Hospital Friday morning and during an incident that unfolded there a hospital valet was shot and critically injured, police said.
Police say Juston Root, 41, of Boston, assaulted an officer at the scene and then jumped into his car and led police on a chase into Brookline, where he crashed before being shot while flashing what appeared to be a weapon, police said.
Police are still investigating and have not confirmed whether Root had a firearm on him, or what firearm injured the valet, who remains hospitalized.
Juston Root’s mother, Barbara, told 7NEWS her son suffered from mental illness but had been doing well for years.
“He just wrote a cookbook. You know, he’s doing great in his life and they just cut it short,” Barbara Root said. “They were shooting at him, he’s driving away because he feels like they are going to shoot him!”
The day before he was killed, Juston Root posted a four-minute video on YouTube talking about law enforcement.
“It is about fight or flight, sometimes you should just flight not fight,” Root says in the video. “That is a good way to live your life.”
Evan Root, Juston Root’s father, said he misses his son.
“We both told each other how much we loved each other and it wasn’t because something was impending that he knew or anything,” Evan Root said of a conversation with his son. “I need to accept reality and I’m pretty good about that but it doesn’t mean I don’t shed tears too.”
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