Reading Officer Responded to Watertown Friday After Shoot Out

Reading Police Officer Matt Edson was one of the three officers to assist in Boston last week after the tragic marathon bombings. Edson is part of the NEMLEC Regional Response Team and has been with the Reading Police Department since 1989.

Assisting in the city

Edson was first deployed on Tuesday and spent the entire day, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the city's financial district to provide extra security. He worked the same shifts on Wednesday and Thursday.

The NEMLEC team had various missions, he said. He was on a team with four other officers and their mission was to give people "peace of mind" while standing guard with patrol rifles in the financial district. The officers kept their eyes open for anything suspicious and were constantly listening to their radios.

"We were hyper vigilant," he said. "We didn’t know what would happen next."

Edson and the other officers stood guard on Franklin and Arch Streets and conducted field interviews and observations when necessary.

Two suspicious men carrying backpacks were interviewed by officers after being denied a bank account at a Bank of America. The men were cleared by Edson and other officers after a field interview and observation was completed.

The officers also responded when suspicious packages were delivered until the bomb squad was able to relieve them. Calls for suspicious packages were coming in continuously, he said.

“We got a tremendous amount of public support for law enforcement and our mission,” he said.

Every few people that walked by thanked him and the other officers, he said. Citizens offered to bring them food or water. Even an elderly woman in a wheel chair offered to pick up coffee for them, he told Patch.

Responding to Watertown

He received a call to respond to Watertown while he was in bed around 1 a.m. Friday morning. At that time, he heard of Officer Sean Collier's death and that transit officer Richard Donohue was badly injured.

"It was tragic to hear about that," he said of Collier's death, "And there was some uncertainty about the condition of the transit officer and we were trying to get information on how he was doing and even up until now, I'm just trying to follow how he is doing in hopes that he has a full recovery."

Reading Officer Fitzgerald and Officer Lee also assisted in Boston last week. Edson met Fitzgerald outside of Beth Israel to pick up some equipment early Friday morning, while the first suspect was being treated inside after the shoot out at MIT.

There was an overwhelming police response in Watertown when Edson arrived early on Friday, he said. Several command posts were set up and a staging area for the media.

"We enforced hyper vigilance," he said. "We didn’t know what danger may come next.”

Officers were very careful in setting up a perimeter and keeping a "watchful eye over the media." He assisted other officers and his friend State Trooper Murphy in keeping the media safe for a while before he was deployed to Walnut Street in Watertown where he helped “fortify the inner perimeter.” 

“We were essentially watching for the suspect and keeping the residents in their houses so SWAT teams could search house by house," he said.

That was a long process, he explained, because the SWAT teams had to search "every nook and cranny" in each house for the suspect. 

While he was stationed on Walnut Street, he was located behind a Lexus dealer. The employees allowed the officers to use the bathrooms inside the dealership and they brought the officers snacks, power bars, water and coffee.

Edson wasn't able to see the suspect when he was captured, as he was going through a shift change at that time. He did listen to it on the radio, he said.

He felt relief when he heard that the second suspect was captured, he said.

“It all played out, text book, when you listened to it over the radio," Edson told Patch.

He commended all of the officers involved and said that the coordination between the various agencies was impeccable.

"It's things like this that myself and other members of law enforcement have been training for," he said.

He was sent into Boston again Saturday to assist with the security at the Bruins game. After that, he attended the candlelight vigil for Officer Collier in Wilmington.

"It was a very moving experience," he said. "It kind of put an end cap on the weeks events.”