Stephanie daley
Watertown dogcatcher descibes helping police find shooting suspect
Seconds after hearing that police were looking for a red Dodge Durango in connection with a shooting in Belmont Tuesday afternoon, Watertown Animal Control Officer Karen O’Reilly spotted the vehicle.
“He literally pulled out from a side street right in front of me,” said O’Reilly, 35, of Watertown. “It was a red Dodge Durango. I was like ‘I think that’s a Dodge Durango.’”
It was about 12:30 p.m., and O’Reilly was inside her animal control vehicle on Belmont Street by York Avenue.
She said the vehicle turned onto Carroll Street, and she followed it. Around Lowell Elementary School, there were “do not enter” signs.
The Durango continued anyway, but she drove around the block to avoid going the wrong way on the road.
She managed to get back behind him on Orchard Street.
“I wanted to get close enough to see what he looked like,” she said. “I couldn’t tell if he was Asian or Hispanic. I called in [the police] at this point. I know it sounds like a long time, but it literally was two minutes.”
She followed the vehicle onto Common Street and then Mount Auburn Street. When they were stopped at a red light in Watertown Square, police arrived, including Officer Joseph Casella, who showed up first.
“I said ‘This better be the guy, because if it’s not I will never live this down,’” O’Reilly said.
Police detained the driver, and arrested him.
“It really was all the police,” O’Reilly said about the suspect being caught. “They’re the ones that put themselves out there.”
Watertown Police Chief Ed Deveau called Karen O’Reilly’s efforts “heroic.”
“She’s in a vehicle, she knows he’s armed and dangerous, just coming from a shooting,” Deveau said. “For her to follow him and give us the information was just outstanding. It’s just way beyond what her duties are.”
On Tuesday around 12:15 p.m., several shots were fired on Flett Road near Creeley Road in Belmont. A Honda sedan with four people in it stopped on Flett Road along with a Dodge Durango containing a single driver.
The driver of the Durango reportedly exited his vehicle, produced a handgun, and fired one round into the air and several into the rear of the Honda, shattering the rear window. One slug hit a headrest.
“If it was a couple of inches either way, we could be looking at serious, if not fatal, injuries,” said Belmont Police Department spokesperson Lt. Rick Santangelo.
No one inside the vehicle was injured. The victims were age 18 to 24.
They all drove in the Honda to the Watertown Police Station to report the incident. They arrived just before 12:30 p.m., Watertown Police said.
Watertown Police broadcast a description of the suspect vehicle at 12:31 p.m.
After police stopped the vehicle, a search of the Durango reportedly produced a .38 caliber revolver.
The driver under arrest is Colby Bowman, 18, of 63 Hull St., Belmont.
He is charged with armed assault to murder (four counts), assault with a dangerous weapon (four counts), discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, carrying a firearm without a license, possession of a firearm with a mutilated identification number, possession of ammunition without a license and defacing property. Bowman was being held on $25,000 bail.
It appears the shooting was not random, as the victims knew the suspect.
Deveau said that without O’Reilly’s help, police might not have found Bowman, or at least found him so quickly.
“It is a good of example of where we need the public to help us,” Deveau said. “The Police Department can never solve all crimes by ourselves.”
Deveau said it is too bad no one called police following the gunshots. When people hear something out of the ordinary like that, they should contact police just in case.
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