The suspect was identified as Arthur DaRosa, 28, of Taunton.
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An off-duty police officer fatally shot the suspect.
“It appears that but for the actions of the deputy sheriff, there may very well have been other victims”, Quinn said.
Darosa’s first victim, Patricia Slavin, 80, was stabbed with a kitchen knife as she ate dinner in her Myricks Street home after Darosa crashed his truck nearby. DaRosa stabbed both women, who he didn’t know, then ran from the house. She says he wanted help but didn’t receive it. Miola was transferred to Brigham and Women’s and is expected to recover from the assault. One remained hospitalized Wednesday. They say he assaulted multiple people inside the store before running to Bertucci’s restaurant and stabbing two more people, including a 56-year-old man who died at a hospital.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the MA office of Health and Human Services said the agency was deeply saddened by the “senseless and tragic events” and would fully cooperate with the criminal investigation.
“He had the back of her shirt and kept stabbing her, and by the time she got to me, she was screaming, ‘Help me!”
Heath was stabbed to death at the Silver City Galleria Mall Tuesday evening where he’d been out to dinner with his wife, Rosemary.
A pregnant woman left the same restaurant indicating that she had been wounded, police sources say, but no further details about her condition have been confirmed. “A man saved her, but he went after only women”, she said.
“I think [Heath] went down low, to try and get him around the elbows, and [DaRosa] pulled her arm back and stabbed my husband in the head”.
One of those victims, a 56-year-old Taunton man, later died.
Waitress Sheenah Savoy, 26, was also stabbed inside the restaurant, and remains in serious condition after being flown to Rhode Island Hospital.
“Tragedy hit hard this evening”, Taunton Mayor Tom Hoye said.
“I’d like to thank the off-duty sheriff, Hoye said”. An off-duty deputy, James Creed, was also in the restaurant and shot and killed DaRosa, said the district attorney.
“He reacted in a professional, but heroic manner”, District Attorney Thomas Quinn said.
“My honest condolence to the families involved”, said Liz DaRosa, Arthur’s aunt.
Scott Blackwell, 36, who has known the younger DaRosa since he was a child, said he was shocked because DaRosa was “a really good kid, never a troublemaker”.
She says he was let out of Morton Hospital around 4 a.m. Tuesday. She apologized to the families of the victims, saying, “We can’t understand it, never mind what they’re going through”.
“Morton Hospital has been advocating for years that the state review and revise its policies that require outside third-party vendors to evaluate and determine the course of treatment for Medicaid patients in emergency departments”, the statement said.
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This story has been corrected to show that Kathleen Slavin is 58, not 48.
