An inquest has begun into the death of a 64-year-old man who was fatally shot by Cambridge Police in Central Square last month.
Two weeks after the shooting on Aug. 21, a district court judge on Wednesday began an examination of the facts around the shooting of 64-year-old William Woodworth.
“We should be doing our due diligence around those issues to ensure that there isn’t something improper that happened,” said Cambridge City Councilor Marc McGovern. “That’s what the inquest is for — to get those facts and find that out.”
Woodworth had just gotten out of his car when he allegedly pointed a handgun at officers. Police then unsuccessfully attempted to disarm Woodworth, and multiple shots were fired before he was pronounced dead at the scene. A loaded firearm was also found at the scene, according to authorities.
An inquest doesn’t result in criminal charges, but is a judicial process that the state uses to “obtain information concerning whether a death may have been the result of a crime.” This includes a review of all of the evidence that has been entered in the case, including witness interviews and video and audio recordings, to help determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
District Court Judge Holly Broadbent, a former Suffolk County prosecutor who has been on the bench since 2014, is expected to oversee the inquest.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan has used judicial inquests since 2018 to investigate deadly force cases involving police.
Cambridge City Councilor Patricia Nolan said she believes inquests should be mandated by state law whenever a district attorney is faced with a police-involved shooting.
“The inquest process ensures that the judge and courts are not directly the ones who deal with the police department in question,” said Nolan. “That’s very important to ensure that there’s an objective and fair adjudication of all the facts and circumstances and issues.”
Woodworth’s family and Cambridge city officials, including Nolan and City Manager Yi-An Huang, have called for the release of the body camera footage since just days after the shooting.
Broadbent has blocked the public release of this footage until after the inquest has concluded.
“While I believe in the inquest process, I have advocated for quicker release of body-worn camera footage before the conclusion of the full process,” said Huang in a statement. “I believe that the timely release of body-worn camera footage is critical to public trust, especially as we seek to build greater transparency in our public safety system.”
Nolan said waiting to release the body cam footage “jeopardizes transparency.”
“I think it leads people to believe that there’s something to be hidden, which shouldn’t be the case,” she said. “I am talking with our city staff to see if there is something we can appropriately do to encourage the judge who’s been appointed to release it.”
A report will also be released once the inquest is complete. Ryan has previously committed to releasing additional records, photos, video and audio recording that can be legally disclosed.
While city officials are unsure how long the inquest will take, McGovern said he hopes it can provide a clearer understanding of “why things turned out the way they did.”
“I know it’s hard to wait, especially for the family,” he said. “But you also want to ensure that … you’re giving the investigation the attention and the time that it deserves for everybody’s sake.”
Nolan said she understands that processes take time, but that lengthy proceedings can result in becoming “almost a miscarriage of justice.”
“I just feel like what we need to do as the public sector is restore people’s faith in justice being served by having a faster timeline for people to get the information that they’re seeking,” she said. “You don’t want to rush things either, because rushing things, if it leads to things being reviewed in a way that leads to errors, obviously, we don’t want that.”
