Not your circus
Not your monkeys
You’ve seen stories like this before, and you will see stories like this again because they teach a lesson that needs reinforcing often: confronting a stranger can go terribly wrong...and not everyone agrees on what confrontation looks like.
In this case, Kevin Doherty was walking home after dropping his son off at school when he saw someone spray-painting graffiti. He likely remembered the first part of the lesson, and decided not to verbally or physically engage. Instead, he did what a lot of us might think is a reasonable alternative. He took a picture. The vandalizer objected, and started an argument. Within minutes, Kevin was dead.
Let me be clear. What I’m about to say is not a criticism. It is not a warning to never engage. It is not an argument that quietly taking pictures or otherwise being “a good witness” is as much a mistake as wading in to stop someone doing a bad thing.
What I am saying is that results are never guaranteed, no matter what you do (or don’t). Outcomes can range from an apology to an attack, and it’s not always easy to predict how a particular person at a particular moment might react.
That’s why it’s so important to revisit scenarios like these over and over again, and observe all of the different possibilities. Before reading this news snippet, had it occurred to you that a simple snapshot might anger a vandalizer enough to shoot and kill? It’s okay to say no.
Now that you know, though, you won’t be as surprised when you see it again, maybe in your own life. Now, the real learning can begin as you brainstorm how you can respond. In Kevin’s shoes, what could you have done differently as soon as you saw the vandalizer? Let’s say you also decided to take that picture. How would you take it? What could you have been prepared to do, in case you got the same reaction Kevin did? How might the vandalizer react, well or not?
Nobody can see into the future, but we can look to the past to help us prepare for it.
The story:
Doherty called 911 shortly before 9 a.m. on Thursday to report that he was being attacked, and while he was on the line with dispatch, multiple gunshots were heard, followed by Doherty exclaiming, “He shot me,” prosecutors said.
When officers arrived at the scene along a pathway at Jordan Pond in the area of Edgewater Avenue, they found Doherty unresponsive and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to authorities.
Doherty was rushed to UMass Medical Center in Worcester, where he was pronounced dead.
A witness told police that he was near the pond when he saw the suspect, later identified as Srivastava, involved in an argument with Doherty, who was walking his child’s scooter and helmet home after dropping him off at the Coolidge School, court documents indicated. Srivastava then allegedly pulled out a firearm, opened fire on Doherty, and fled the scene on foot.
Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early and Shrewsbury Police Chief Kevin Anderson said Thursday that the victim was using a phone to record the suspect, who was allegedly spray-painting near the pond, before the shooting.
“The gentleman who was shot earlier was walking his child to school and was returning from the school when he interacted with a man,” Early said. “It appeared that the man was doing some type of spray painting. He took a picture of the man, and that started an altercation. The person then had a dispute, and gunshots were heard.”
Prosecutors noted that investigators found two photos on Doherty’s cellphone, timestamped about a minute before his 911 call. One showed his child’s scooter, and the second showed a dark-skinned man spray painting the ground.
“Approximately one day earlier, the Shrewsbury Police Department responded to a call for service for graffiti painted on the Jordan Pond trail, where ”Coolidge Street Crips” had been painted on the ground,” authorities stated in the documents. “It should be noted that the exterior of Srivastava‘s residence has graffiti on it referencing Crip affiliation.”
Those familiar with the area, as well as law enforcement, told Boston 25 that they have had run-ins with the suspect in the past.
John Bissonnette works nearby and said he’s come in contact with the suspect before, including earlier in the week on Tuesday, when he ended up calling the police on him.
“A couple of days ago, I was pulling out of a parking spot right here, and he came flying down into the parking lot. You’re supposed to go 5 miles per hour; he’s going like 50. He almost hit me, and then he almost hit one of the mechanics that works here, and the mechanic said something to him, and he got out of his car and started saying, ‘Don’t disrespect me, mind your own business.’ I backed up to see what was going on, and he came charging at me and yelling at me,” Bissonnette said.
Early on Thursday said the suspect was known to law enforcement, acknowledging an incident involving a machete in Westboro back in 2022.
In the court documents, Shrewsbury police said they are familiar with Srivastava “through extensive history dating back to 2015.”
Excerpted from Boston 25 News.