Lexington, MA
Hancock Street
February 12, 2022
White | Male | 35 Years Old
Lexington Police Department
On February 12, 2022, at around noon, a jogger placed a 911 call reporting that a man was leaning out of the window of a house on Hancock Street screaming that someone was trying to kill him.
Police arrived on the scene to find 35 year old Brendan Reilly holding a kitchen knife in the backyard of the house, a group home for people with addiction and mental health issues.
According to police, officers repeatedly asked Reilly to drop the knife; when he failed to comply, they began firing bean bags rounds at him. In the commotion, Officer Steven Papia slipped and fell to the ground. Reilly allegedly advanced toward the fallen officer with the knife, and another officer, Joseph Carruthers, shot Reilly four times with his department-issued Glock 17 firearm. Reilly was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead later that afternoon.
The family filed a wrongful death suit against the Town of Lexington, the officers involved and the company which managed the group home where Reilly was living at the time.