BOSTON (WHDH) - A Brigham and Women’s Hospital valet who was shot on the job back in February while police were chasing a suspect they believed to be armed told investigators about his harrowing experience from his hospital bed just one day later.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s office released a slew of new information in connection with their investigation into the police-involved shooting of Juston Root Thursday, including new surveillance video from the valet plaza that shows the victim wearing a red jacket uniform as he directed cars before he was shot.
“Thirty seconds after I saw the cruiser I heard one pop — which I figured was a gunshot. And then a couple moments later, whether I think two to three seconds, a series of quick two to three pops. And during that time it felt like I got a baseball bat to the forehead. I hit the ground so quickly,” he told police from his bed in the Intensive Care Unit.
The valet who was seen working in that surveillance footage was shot in the head as the altercation between Root and police escalated.
“I remember rolling around with my hands on my head,” he said. “And then the scariest part was everybody kept going, ‘Oh he got shot, he got shot.'”
The valet said he saw the commotion but was just too busy working to worry about his own safety.
“I could’ve cared less, thinking you couldn’t touch me,” he recalled.
That valet never lost consciousness and was able to clearly recount what had happened to him.
The officers were chasing Root, who they believed to be armed but he was only carrying a paintball gun. After a brief car chase, real bullets flew once again during a tense standoff in Brighton and Root was killed.
Police have been cleared of any wrongdoing in Root’s death.
His family members say he was suffering from mental illness and have filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
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