'You'll Never Take Me Alive:' Wakefield Police Shooting Deemed Justified

WAKEFIELD, MA — The two police detectives who shot a man they said charged at them with a knife were justified in their actions, an investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney's Office concluded.

Timothy Martin was shot four times times last year by officers searching the Otis Street home of his mother, who was found dead there earlier in the day. Martin, who survived, is charged with her murder.

Martin's mother, Pamela Wood, was a longtime speech therapist at the Greenwood Elementary School in Wakefield.

Related: 'Vibrant' Speech Pathologist Remembered By Wakefield Schools

Police responded to a well-being check to Wood's home the morning of Jan. 19. Her body was found at the bottom of the basement stairs.

Detectives Christopher Grace and John Ryan were among those clearing the house. When they got to the basement, they announced their presence and told anyone who may be there to come out, according a redacted report from the district attorney's office.

Police noticed a bag on the table, indicating perhaps someone may still be there. Once Ryan stepped over Wood's body, he heard a man later identified as Martin scream, "You'll never take me alive," and sprint toward him with a knife in hand, according to the report.

Martin made up the distance between them quickly as a back-peddling Ryan fell backward into clutter, the report said. "I’m gonna die in this basement," Ryan thought, according to the report. "He’s gonna stab me."

Ryan, who thought Martin meant to kill him and the other officers trailing him, fired his gun five times. The report said he did not have time to issue a verbal warning, as the space between them had disappeared.

Grace, who had the same thoughts of Martin's intent, fired his gun twice at about the same time Ryan did.

Police rendered aid to Martin, who was brought to the hospital. Due to his injuries, he was not arraigned until March 1.

Martin, 24, of Manchester, N.H., has been charged with the murder of Wood, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and improper disposition of a human body. He is being held without bail at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain.

The next date in Martin's case is March 1.

No charges are being brought against the officers involved.

"Detectives Grace and Ryan were reasonable in their belief of being in imminent danger of being stabbed and suffering death or serious bodily injury at the hands of Timothy Martin," the report concluded. "Their use of deadly force was not excessive (i.e., no more force than was reasonably necessary) in the circumstances; therefore, the shooting by both officers was justified in the reasonable exercise of self-defense/defense of another under Massachusetts law."