Prosecutor: Gunfire ended hair-raising street chase
by Jessica Heslam and Laurel J. Sweet
Thursday, September 19, 2002
A murder suspect critically wounded by a police bullet went on a crime spree before the Monday shootout, during which he injured a woman in a car wreck and tried to carjack two other drivers, a prosecutor said yesterday.
As he yawned and appeared to make gang gestures with his fingers, a heavily medicated John K. Powell was arraigned yesterday in his hospital bed on carjacking, attempted murder and gun charges.
The 30-year-old ex-con pulled out a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and opened fire at close range on Sgt. Detective Daniel Keeler Monday night at a busy Roxbury intersection, prosecutor Ed Zabin said. Keeler, a decorated homicide detective, fired back, striking Powell once in the temple.
EMTs found Powell on the ground by a car he tried to carjack, clutching his gun. ``There were several spent shell casings, presumably from that weapon, at that location,'' Zabin said. Powell, whose leg was chained to his bed in the surgical intensive care unit at Boston Medical Center, pleaded not guilty and was held on $150,000 bail.
Prosecutors say the harrowing ordeal began when Keeler encountered Powell at Walnut Park and Wardman Road about 6 p.m. Monday. Sources say Keeler was there investigating the murder of 43-year-old handyman Paul Gauthier, whom Powell is suspected of shooting to death Sept. 5.
Zabin said Keeler was in plainclothes but his police badge and gun belt were obvious. When Powell spotted Keeler, he jumped into his car and backed up ``at a high rate of speed,'' crashing into a BMW carrying a woman and children, injuring the woman.
Powell fled up Walnut with Keeler in pursuit in an unmarked vehicle with blue lights flashing, Zabin said. When Powell neared the intersection of Humboldt Avenue and Crawford Street, Powell jumped out of his car and ran into traffic, Zabin said.
Keeler got out of his car, identified himself as a cop, and ordered Powell to stop, Zabin said, adding Powell then attempted to carjack two vehicles. As Keeler approached Powell by the second car, Powell pulled out his gun and fired, Zabin said. Keeler then fired back.
Keeler, who is on injured leave, was not hurt. Police say the shooting was justified.
Keeler was interviewed yesterday by state police assigned to Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley, whose office is investigating the shooting.
``If there was ever a textbook case for a justified shooting, this is it,'' said Tom Montgomery, president of the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society.
Powell's lengthy criminal record stretches back to his juvenile years and includes convictions for firearms offenses, assaults on police and armed robbery. Powell has spent most of his adult life behind bars. At the time of Monday's shooting, Powell was the focus of a manhunt by state parole and probation officials for having vanished with less than a week remaining on a six-year parole requirement he was completing for ``beating'' Boston police officer Paula Sutherland.
On Jan. 22, 1996, Sutherland stopped Powell on Humboldt Avenue and found an unlicensed .25-caliber handgun and 44 bags of cocaine.
Powell pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to serve 5-to-7 years in prison. Toward the end of his jail stint, Powell did 20 months of community service. He was paroled last Dec. 7 with the conditions he submit to mandatory drug and alcohol testing and attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings, Don Giancioppo, spokesman for the state Parole Board, said.
Powell kept up with the terms of his release and even picked up work as a landscaper, but broke his leg and consequently lost his job, Giancioppo said. Powell would have been a free man as of July 17, but on July 11, he inexplicably disappeared.
The state Department of Probation was also looking for Powell, spokeswoman Coria Holland said, because he'd skipped out on drug testing and probation supervision fees he was required to pay.
Powell, who has a checkered history of violence and drug abuse, had previously been jailed from 1991 to 1995 for the attempted murder of another man and armed assault with a gun.
Defense attorney Beth Eisenberg said some witnesses claim Powell did not brandish a weapon and that Keeler fired on him without ``provocation.'' Eisenberg said she was concerned because Keeler ``has been at the center of controversy with respect to prosecutorial misconduct.'' Keeler is being sued for allegedly suppressing evidence in an infamous child murder case that led to the wrongful murder conviction of a Boston teen.
Jacquelyn Gauthier, Gauthier's ex-wife and mother of their three kids, said she wants Powell to spend his life in prison for allegedly killing Gauthier. She said Powell stole $1,000 from Gauthier, who in turn took a baseball bat to Powell's friend's apartment.
``I want him to know what he took away from us all for $1,000,'' she said. |
