HAVERHILL — There will be no criminal charges against a Brinks guard who shot at two teenagers driving away from an attempted unarmed robbery, District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said.
Blodgett said after discussing the matter with his office's lawyers, he made the decision not to prosecute the armored truck guard, who police said was the victim of the attempted robbery.
"We reviewed all the facts and circumstances and felt that it would not be in the interest of justice to bring any action against the guard," Blodgett said yesterday.
Police said the teenagers were unarmed and the Riversedge Plaza, where the guard fired his gun, was a busy place with many people and cars in the area. When asked why the decision against criminal charges was made despite the circumstances of the shooting, Blodgett refused to give a further explanation. No one was hurt in the shooting.
At the time of the shooting, Deputy police Chief Donald Thompson said police were investigating the legality of the gunshot. Thompson said at the time that it would be illegal "99 percent of the time" for a police officer to fire his gun at an unarmed, fleeing suspect, and that the same may be true for a guard in a case like this.
Calls seeking comments from the teenagers' defense lawyers on Blodgett's decision were not returned yesterday. The lawyers have said the guard was not justified in firing his gun.
Police said that late on the morning of Jan. 14, Isaac Sosa, 18, of 100 Berkeley St., second floor, Lawrence, and Christopher Delarosa, 19, of 275 Andover Road, Billerica, tried to rob a Brinks armored truck guard who was about to replenish an ATM in a Bank of America kiosk at Riversedge Plaza.
Police said the Brinks guard fired his handgun at the car as Sosa and Delarosa drove away and that the bullet struck the rear of their car.
Sosa and Delarosa were arraigned in Haverhill District Court on unarmed robbery charges while Delarosa also was charged with assault and battery.
Sosa and Delarosa were subsequently indicted by an Essex County grand jury and arraigned in Salem Superior Court, where they were charged with intent to rob, which carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in a state prison, and unarmed robbery, which carries a potential term of up to life in a state prison.
Both charges can only be brought at the Superior Court level, said Stephen O'Connell, a spokesman for the district attorney's office. Had their cases not been bumped up to Salem Superior Court by the grand jury indictment, they would not have faced the possibility of a life sentence.
Sosa and Delarosa are scheduled to appear April 1 in Salem Superior Court for a pretrial conference hearing.
During their initial arraignment in Haverhill, prosecutor John DePaulo said Sosa had waited nearby in his father's car while Delarosa tried to rob the guard. DePaulo said Delarosa punched the guard in the face, made an unsuccessful grab for the bag of money, then fled in Sosa's car. The men were captured minutes later by police on Route 125 in Plaistow, N.H.
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