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Driver stopped for man lying in the road in Jackson Square, backed up, then drove right over him, killing him, DA says
By adamg on Fri, 09/02/2022 - 3:44pm
A Hyde Park man faces murder charges for allegedly running over a pedestrian who had collapsed on the street in front of him and for whom a bus driver had stopped early Thursday morning, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.
Maximo Mazanett, 54, had bail set at $250,000 at his arraignment this morning in Roxbury Municipal Court, the DA's office says.
According to the DA"s office, Thomas Ruffen, 39, died not from whatever caused him to collapse, but from being run over by a Ford Explorer at Columbus Avenue and Centre Street:
[Assistant DA Mark] Zanini told the court that security footage captured Ruffen as he walked from his Jackson Square residence toward Columbus Avenue at approximately 4:30 a.m. yesterday. He began have difficulty walking and repeatedly fell. He lay down in the street in front of an intersection. The operator of a bus observed Ruffen lying on the right lane of roadway and came to a stop in the center lane. A 2011 Ford Explorer driven by Mazanett came to a stop immediately in front of Ruffen’s body. Witnesses made statements to Mazanett that there was a person on the ground in front of his vehicle. Despite his knowledge that the victim was directly in front of his vehicle, prosecutors allege that Mazanett reversed his vehicle several feet, waited for the light to turn green and then drove over the victim’s body. The vehicle dragged the victim across four lanes. Mazanett again stopped his vehicle on the other side of the intersection, with the victim’s body beneath his vehicle.
Boston EMS personnel responded to the scene and pronounced the victim deceased.
WCVB reports Manzanett is an MBTA bus driver, off duty at the time. The driver who had stopped for Ruffen was driving one of the Orange Line shuttle buses.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
WCVB says the accused was an off-duty MBTA bus driver
Off-duty MBTA bus driver purposely ran over man in street, killing him, investigators say
This is so bizarre.
Why would he do that?
Why on earth???
Why would anyone do something like this. Essentially deliberately murdering someone just because they were obstructing his car travel?
There are countless sick,
There are countless sick, entitled drivers out on the streets. This is what happens when you design a country around cars, give a drivers license to every loser, and cops are too lazy to enforce traffic laws. Make Centre Street pedestrian only and it will save lives and businesses.
Jesus stop.
You are insufferable.
Blasphemy
Jesus was and some say still is insufferable.
I disagree.
The driver, at a minimum, was criminally negligent, apparently killed a person fallen in fontbof his car at a well-lit intersection.
Any significant technology will have negative as well as positive consequences and will be misused. See surveillance capitalism and social media for examples of how influential and destructive to a population much larger than the user group is harmed by changed behaviors.
Greatly oversimplified, but kinopio isn't really wrong.
I had not read that report. Thanks.
Even more damming! Fuck this bastard!
Probably some people assumed the victim was drunk or had fallen from a dirt bike and in someway responsible for being in the way of the driver and deserving of violence.
Now that the facts of his life are out there, he might be seen as a good human, not a waste of space.
Still, people tend to identify with or kow tow to the entitlements of drivers. They worry they could be the next killer due to negligence or road rage. They’d rather see mercy for the killers just in case it’s them next time behind the wheel of a misused weapon.
it’s uncomfortable
but it’s not wrong. nearly anyone can get a license beginning at age 16.5, and then there’s literally no proactive mechanism for testing an individual’s continued fitness for driving ever again.
everyone agrees driving is a privilege, not a right. i can see that retesting people at any kind of regular interval becomes a logistical nightmare pretty quickly - but that doesn’t mean that the system is above criticism.
116 murdered by cars every day in the US
But how dare anyone be upset about one more!
You are misusing the word
This particular case appears to be actual murder. Don’t cheapen it by equating it to other road fatalities caused by carelessness, medical conditions, poor road or vehicle design, etc. all senseless and morally unacceptable loss of life, but not murder.
it is murder
It is homicide by depraved indifference. The car lobby blackmails our country. There are many things that could prevent death by car, but there is no appetite to make them safe.
Homicide by depraved indifference...
And homicide by depraved indifference, while morally reprehensible, is not murder. If the witness reports we have seen are correct, this was the deliberate killing of an innocent person, i.e. murder. Don't water down the word "murder" by overusing it.
don't water down the value of human life by justifying this.
It was not an accident.
OMG, it’s like you don’t read a post aside from a few words
Then comment. I’m literally blown away by your lack and continued lack of reading comprehension.
you seem upset that I can't
you seem upset that I can't get sidetracked.
You are pro death. Hope you
You are pro death. Your little brain can’t handle complex situations. Hope you don’t have a drivers license. If you do? Have fun paying for gas, sucker.
Curious what your thoughts are on EVs?
I have two 240v 50A drops in my four car garage, but will only switch once ICE is no longer an option.
this account
is the walking personification of the “weird flex but ok” meme lol
It’s good to me
I ain’t going to lie.
Just to tickle your fancy, I have an R8 V10 ($200k) on order right now to fill the third bay. What should I get for the fourth?
Well, that explains why you asked that question.
I think you’re a first class liar.
Please explain, Lee
What am I lying about?
Being a human being?
I mean, "robo", okay.
Weird flex is right. Such an expensive fetish.
The fancy cars.
The 4 bay garage.
Etc.
I’m lying?
Ok, lee. I actually like you and would love to have you over once I move in. You’re going to have to leave MA though.
You might just be lying but, …
… oddly enough, I’ve come to like you too.
I'm so sorry that you think murder with a car is okay
I'm amazed that you can't see the role that normalizing and minimizing negligent killing people with cars plays in this sort of intentional incident.
Instead of invoking deity names, perhaps learn some sociology?
It's murder in cold blood
This is what happens in a country that cares little about senseless violence and murder.
Give someone a dangerous weapon…
The temptation to use it is irresistible to some. They think because they have the power to kill, they can go ahead and kill.
Especially when they think they can get away with it
Drive drunk and kill and maim and its a good chance you will get away with it.
Drive a huge truck with an oversize load without the proper route filings and pilot car, kill and leave the scene, and the cops will even cover for you and protect you!
Why wouldn't someone just make the leap to "this is a freebie"? Especially given the entitlement to road rage and speeding seen in a lot of web forums?
When things have gone from "I'm just going to run over that cyclist/pedestrian in my way" to "anyone in a small car is asking for it", it becomes a minor leap to "yeehhaaawww person lying in the street - free murder fun".
I gotta believe there was
I gotta believe there was some confusion involved. The fact that it was 4:30 in the morning, the driver waited for a green light, and the driver pulled over instead of zooming away makes me think this wasn't just a random act of aggression.
nothing like an online lynching
The man has been charged with a crime and he is entitled to a defense. The dead dude was lying in the street at 4:30 AM. There could be reasonable doubt, regardless of what the alleged eyewitnesses are saying to the press. The bus was blocking the road, and he was on his way to work. How certain are all you armchair jurors that he had actual knowledge that the victim was in the street, and that he deliberately ran him over.
Don't worry anon
As long as he wasn't clearly intoxicated, any jury with at least one motorist on it is going to find him innocent of killing a non-motorist. The worst outcome for him would be he might get a surcharge on his insurance.
"On his way to work"
...what does that have to do with anything?
Pretty certain.
Read the reports.
Can’t even play the “I hit the accelerator by mistake” card.
But already his lawyer is claiming he never saw the guy. Sounds like he saw him perfectly well and aimed for him then tried to get away. It’ll be up to the witnesses and cameras.
Oh, car means accident?
No, honey. No.
This sounds like pure murder. And enablers like you make it easy to get away with this sort of murder.
You need to take a step back and think to yourself "would I be saying this if he killed him with a gun"?
This looks like a hate crime.
In my personal opinion, of course. Innocent, etc.
Bailed yet?
The car must have been impounded for evidence. I would think.
No mention of a license suspension so free to drive again, it seems, because god forbid someone be deprived of the right to kill again.
Slow down...
$250k cash bail is substantial and reflects the gravity of the charges. If the guy does somehow make bail, he will be released with a number of restrictions -- including, no doubt, home confinement and having his license suspended or revoked. If he doesn't make bail, then he's not driving anywhere.
Only jail could keep him off the streets …
… for certain. We’ve seen it not used in too many cases and there have been terrible consequences. I would not be too surprised if it turns out this driver had done similar shit in the past and gotten away with it. It’s likely he will again.
Red light…
… green light. But the driver was careful not to run a red light?
He’ll get kudos for that as well as…
… for not leaving the scene.
Yes, according to witnesses he backed up after stopping in front of the person and after being told there was someone fallen down in the
street. He waited for the green light then hit the accelerator and killed him and dragged him across 4 lanes of traffic.
Sounds a bit like the recent Anne Heche thing where bystanders tried to stop her but couldn’t.
Here we have one more of countless example…
… of why being a pedestrian in a crosswalk is incredibly dangerous. Especially a crosswalk at an intersection.
He would have been safer if he was the guy on a bike in the Ted Williams tunnel. Fact.
I don't understand the "traffic" comments
The car and traffic laws here are just as relevant as in a story about drive-by shooting.
This is the sort of person who'd push a random person in front of an oncoming train on a subway platform.
Possibly they might.
But those kinds of crime are much rarer than murder by motor vehicle. So there is something about being in the viewfinder of a killing machine. And the laws governing use of them.
There is also something about distance from your victim and escape possibilities.To push a random person onto a train track requires touching that person, feeling the life in their body. Killing by machine is easier and gives the killer more options for escaping blame and putting it on the machine.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2022/aug/31/how-car-cu...
My point has to do with the other thread and threat of death by automobile.
We are allowed to cross reference.
SUV driver.
The victim didn’t stand a chance.