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Man in Jamaica Plain standoff lived, worked in the B&B where he died, DA says

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins says her office has started an investigation into the "complicated sequence of events" that started as "a domestic disturbance" at a bed and breakfast on Wyman Street and ended with a shootout, more than 20 out-of-towners huddling, some in their underwear, in their rooms and the man dead.

In a statement this afternoon, Rollins did not identify the man, but said he lived at Dar Sandler's Wyman Inn and "assisted with the day to day operations of the property."

Rollins did not say if the man died from a self-inflected gunshot wound or whether he died in an exchange of gunfire with police around 10:30 p.m. yesterday. She promised to release more information "when it is appropriate to do so."

Such investigations by the district attorney's office have long been standard whenever police officers discharge their guns.

Rollins said the incident began around 10 p.m. when police officers responded to 21 Wyman St. on a report of a domestic disturbance.

Police found the man outside, but he ran inside, then fired a shot at the officers. They retreated and called for reinforcements, which eventually included a SWAT unit, sharpshooters on a nearby roof, hostage negotiators and patrol officers from several other parts of the city.

Around 10:30 p.m., the man broke a window on an upper floor and shot at police again; this time, they fired back.

Meanwhile, the B&B's guests huddled in their rooms. Some texted police, wondering what to do; police told them to stay where they were but to try to barricade their doors. Around 11:10 p.m., a guest on the rear of the second floor called 911 to report he had found a gun and wrapped it in a towel. A police commander told him to open his window and toss it out - after first instructing officers what was about to happen and that the man was a guest, not the shooter. Police eventually found a second gun in the building.

Not long after, heavily armored SWAT officers began the slow room-to-room process of evacuating guests; around 11:25, two people from the first floor, followed ten minutes later by a couple hiding in the basement. A couple with two small children was led out from the second floor. In all, police led more than 20 people out, a number of them children.

As the guests were led out, they were brought to a T bus brought in to give them a place to stay and to eventually transport them to BPD headquarters on Tremont Street for interviews. Once there, police sought help from the Red Cross to get clothing - several of the guests had already retired for the night when the incident started and didn't have much on.

Rollins praised police for getting all the guests out successfully.

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Comments

How horrifying. Good for the cops in getting everyone except the shooter out safely, but what a traumatic experience.

I take it that no one knows if the domestic disturbance was with a guest or with the shooter's family?

And what the heck is up with guns stashed around a bed & breakfast?

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He was the house manger that lived on the property who had a PTSD breakdown ,from serving in the military for 15 years as high clearance. He was licensed to carry & had every right to have his weapons in his home. He was visibly out of it , his wife of 22 years begged for help saying she never seen him in this state. Enforcement was well aware of his state of mind thinking he was at war & left him unattended at the establishment.

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That someone with PTSD displaying psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions was rightfully allowed to carry firearms. And it wasn't just "his home". It was the home to 20 others that night and most nights. If this is a plea for sympathy, none found here.

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Natisha, how is his wife doing? Please let us know if there's a gofundme to help her-- I know she's new to the area, probably doesn't have much local family or friends to help

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You mean the wife who knew her husband was keeping assault weapons in his room with 20 innocent people under his roof? Bibliotectress, you so woke. You don’t even realize it.

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Surely big Rachel will conduct an investigation in the hopes that the police did something wrong. That’s what she wants to turn this into; a police officer indictment.

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Dan Conley ordered investigations into every single incident in which police fired their weapons and somebody died, which you either forgot or which means you're new to town (or you know and don't care, I guess).

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Yeah, but there are a couple of big differences between Dan and Rachael. I can't recall what they are right now - maybe it will come to me later.

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But I’ll say it anyway. Calling the District Attorney “big” Rachel just makes you an asshole, no matter what you’re trying to say. Go ahead and express your opinion, but please stop making the world worse.

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OR at least READ THE FRIGGING STORY before you touch your keyboard.

It might help you with your mental issues after qoolaid poisoning.

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You are so angry. I get that you're passionate about everything you think is right; however, swearing and replying to comments of people you clearly don't like must be so tiring. Some times you gotta let it go.

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So are you saying it is impossible for a cop to do something wrong?

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But would choose a hotel over Air BNB for a better sense of comfort and security. Yes, bad things can happen anywhere, but this particular situation sounds horrifying for all.

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It’s a traditional B&B, which books through its own website, not the notorious app.

While it wouldn’t have the security features of a larger hotel, it doesn’t look to be the “some random person’s apartment” situation that AirB&B is known for.

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This is a bed and breakfast - predates the whole internet thing. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60745-d14330508-Reviews-Wyman_...

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I stand corrected!

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as all three of those are listed at $10,000 per night. The Tripadvisor site, if you poke around with dates, comes up with $80 per night. I suspect they're just listing on AirBnB to get the exposure and then people google them to get a legit price.

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Airbnb has 47 reviews for Wyman JP units.

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/212664215

Cached googles shows they were not 10,000 dollars on September 12th, but rather 160 dollars

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7yc8-NobUQMJ:https...

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Smaller Boutique Hotels and actual Bed and Breakfasts do use AirBnB as source for customers. They can have a very compelling fee structure for lodging vendors.

They also own and cross market some inventory from HotelTonight as well.

https://skift.com/2018/02/27/this-is-how-airbnb-plans-to-win-over-hotels/

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Yes, bad things can happen anywhere

Do you have any particular reason to believe that bad things happen more often at AirBnBs than at hotels, less often at AirBnBs than hotels, or with about the same frequency at AirBnBs as at hotels?

but this particular situation sounds horrifying for all

Which tells us what, exactly, about the relative risk of staying at AirBnBs vs at hotels?

Hint: "data" is not the plural of "anecdote"

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Stuff like what happened at the Bed and Breakfast are less likely to happen in regular hotels, because they have better security policies. Many hotels provide small TV screens in their rooms, so that a guest can monitor what's going on, and so do front desks of hotels, for the same reason.

Also, with hotels, they have people working the front desks 24 hours a day.

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You mean like closed-circuit security camera monitors? What the heck kind of hotel are you staying in where that's typical?

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OK, as long as we're being happily pedantic together...

"Violence is less likely to happen in regular hotels because they have better security policies." is what my friends in the philosophy of science call a "just-so story."

It would be a plausible explanation of why violence was less likely in regular hotels, if violence were less likely in regular hotels. But, it is not grounded in fact: Nobody here has presented any data about the prevalence of violence in hotels vs airBnB. Since we don't knowthat violence in hotels is less prevalent than in airBnB, it is vacuous to speculate as to why

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Why is the manager or BnB staffer possessing a firearm? The owner needs to vet their employees more carefully. It’s awfully sad, but he put so many people in danger.

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Or, possibly more to the owner of the establishment.

The investigation will likely cover those details. I will say this if the person had been there for a long time and lived there a long time, they may have felt it desirable to have a gun at some point in the past. They may also have been slowly going paranoid and crazy.

The point is that I don't think this was what one would consider a traditional employer-employee relationship and the rest is under investigation.

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Why is the manager or BnB staffer possessing a firearm?

I would imagine that every time I check into a big chain hotel, there's at least one armed staff member, sanctioned to do so by management. Not that they have visibly armed security guards, but I would imagine that someone on staff with access to a firearm.

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Seriously, what level of security clearance do you expect your maintenance man to posess?

. Why is the manager or BnB staffer possessing a firearm? The owner needs to vet their employees more carefully. It’s awfully sad, but he put so many people in danger.

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“Employees are expressly forbidden to have firearms on the premises” kind.

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“After waiting for a warrant most of Sunday, Sergeant Detective John Boyle, a police spokesman, said, police searched the man’s room and found two handguns, a short-barrel semi-automatic rifle, and “hundreds of rounds of ammunition” for the rifle and handguns.”

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how can someone find out who legally owns a gun? I search Mass on-line court records and use the Zillow back ground records to vet applicants for the apartment I own. They don't report legal gun ownership. How would someone find out if an applicant has a registered gun?

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That information is not public, and for good reason: it would make it very easy for thieves to know where they can find guns to steal. It would also enable the kind of discrimination you seem to want to engage in. The courts have already decided it's unconstitutional to forbid firearms for tenants in federal housing, so I wouldn't be surprised if a future case decides it's unconstitutional for all landlords to prohibit lawfully-owned firearms. I wouldn't want to be the landlord in that case.

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This was from a response by the "management" on Trip Advisor posted one week ago:

> We are currently changing house managers which maybe why you didn't run into them though as of next week the new house managers will begin working and be on site all the time.

Whatever the hell happened I feel for the people who feared and fled for their lives. I'm assuming the lawsuits will be meaty.

Also if you were the management hopefully you told your manager *first* that you were firing them before you posted it on the internet.

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This could have been so much worse had this employee/manager decided to go after the guests.

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