"Numerous occupants [mostly the suspect’s family members] exited from Apt. #4 and Apt. #3, entered the stairwell and began assaulting the officers in an effort to free the suspect and prevent him from being arrested," the newspaper quoted the police report as saying. "During the altercation, officers were kicked, punched and choked by numerous suspects."
According to the Herald, 19-year-old Woobenson Morisset was to be served a probation warrant after failing to turn up to court appointments. His family, however, told the officers who came to his address that he wasn't at home. However, after searching the building, the two officers, one male and one female, found the accused hiding in the stairwell. It is alleged that Morisset attacked the officers, and was joined by his relatives from other apartments.
The incident comes after several other attacks on the police were reported in the US this month. On December 20, two police officers in New York were fatally shot by a gunman as they sat in their patrol car, and two officers were wounded in a hatchet attack on December 24. Los Angeles TV station KTLA5 reported on Monday that a manhunt was under way for unidentified gunmen who had fired at police officers in the south of the city. The officers were not wounded by the gunfire.
On Friday, the Boston Globe reported that around 200 people participated in a rally which was held to show support for the police. "I think the people of South Boston wanted to show their respect and solidarity with police and law enforcement officers," Raymond L. Flynn, a former Boston mayor told the paper at the rally, at which demonstrators recited the Pledge of Allegiance and observed a minute's silence in memory of the officers who had been killed in New York.
