“This is a comprehensive manhunt,’’ Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. told police officers from across the region who assembled at the scene. “And it won’t stop until we have every suspect in custody.’’
Authorities say 51-year-old Robert DeNapoli was among the first officers to arrive minutes after an 11 a.m. 911 call about a robbery at Musto Jewelers at a bustling shopping plaza on Cambridge Road.
Gunfire broke out, and witnesses said they saw a tall man dressed in black shoot DeNapoli several times at close range, mounting the hood of his cruiser while a wounded DeNapoli lay defenseless on the ground.
“I saw a man just bound on top of the cruiser, and he held the gun with both hands and he looked down at the cop, and he shot him,’’ said Danny Harrington, who works at the Lawless Chrysler Jeep Dodge dealership across the street from the shooting.
Harrington said he was shocked by the brazen nature of the suspect’s actions.
“The guy could have left him and ran, but he didn’t. He just stayed to shoot him,’’ he said.
Authorities said at least two police officers fired their weapons and that a male suspect, whom they declined to identify, was wounded, taken to a hospital, and arrested.
DeNapoli was seriously injured but was expected to survive, authorities said. He was listed in good condition late last night at the Lahey Clinic.
Coming so soon after the late-December shooting of Woburn police Officer John Maguire, killed at a holdup at a department store, yesterday’s shooting reignited widespread public outrage.
“We’ve had enough tragedy in this city to last us a lifetime,’’ said Raymond B. Drapeau, a city councilor.
After the shooting, SWAT teams, FBI agents, and officers from communities near and far descended on the Four Corners intersection, a busy commercial strip not far from Route 128. More than 100 state troopers responded, as well as officers from as far away as Mansfield.
A helicopter whirred overhead and unmarked police cars rushed off in convoys.
Witnesses, meanwhile, described the shooting and its aftermath as a savage and chaotic scene.
