MEDFORD, Mass. (Court TV) — A man accused of using an assault-style rifle to fire dozens of rounds at drivers sitting in traffic has been ordered to stay in custody without bond.
Tyler Brown appeared at a hearing on May 21, 2026, from his hospital bed. (Court TV)
Tyler Brown, 46, faces several charges, including two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and weapons offenses, for a shooting earlier this month in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Police were called on May 11 to Memorial Drive, a busy road cutting through the Boston suburb, for an active shooter situation. At a news conference following the incident, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said that Brown was walking down the center of Memorial Drive, armed with a high-powered weapon, and was “actively firing in an erratic fashion at various vehicles along the road.” Ryan said the weapon was so powerful that it could hit targets on the other side of the Charles River.
Investigators said that people ran, terrified, from their cars; some people were found hiding beneath their vehicles in the wake of the incident.
Ryan played audio of the gunfire at the news conference — rapid gunfire was audible with sirens beginning almost immediately. The defendant fired an estimated 60 rounds, prosecutors said. Brown was taken into custody after a state trooper and a civilian fired their own guns, hitting him multiple times in the extremities.
At the time of the shooting, Brown was on probation for a shooting involving police officers in 2020, prosecutor Nicole Allain revealed at a dangerousness hearing on Thursday. A recording of Brown’s sentencing in the 2020 case, obtained by WBTS, revealed Judge Janet Sanders acknowledged the risk in giving the defendant a lighter sentence. “I do realize I’m taking a chance on you,” she told Brown. “When people stand up, experienced police officers and probation officers, and they tell me, ‘This guy is a danger to the community,’ I hear that and it gives me…you know, I can’t look into a crystal ball and figure out what’s going to happen once you get out. But I do understand that I’m taking a risk here.” Sanders sentenced Brown to five to six years in prison — half of what prosecutors in the case had requested.
Allain said that Brown has a long criminal history across three states, including earlier convictions for assault and battery in Massachusetts, drug possession in New Hampshire and armed robbery and escape from jail in Michigan dating back to the 1990s.
Brown appeared virtually at Thursday’s hearing from a hospital bed, with his attorney seated beside him. When asked if they had any response to the prosecution’s request to hold him without bond, his attorney responded, “While we fully anticipate setting forth at trial a robust and complete defense, we are, at this time, not contesting the motion.”
Judge David Frank granted the state’s motion, ordering Brown to be held without bond.
Brown is scheduled to be back in court on June 22 for a probable cause hearing; it is unclear whether he will attend in person or whether he will still be hospitalized.
Both shooting victims have been released from the hospital, WCVB reported.
