An altercation broke out in a Framingham courthouse Tuesday after the murder arraignment of a Milford man who allegedly made a U-turn at high speed during a road-rage incident and ran his car into a 26-year-old woman who later died, officials said.
“There was an altercation in the hallway at Framingham District Court today,” Jennifer Donahue, a spokesperson for the court system, said by email. “Court Officers and Framingham Police resolved the situation quickly.”
Video footage from WHDH-TV shows a group of people converging in a hallway outside a courtroom. One woman was pulled from the ground and out of the scuffle.
Framingham police helped break up the scuffle just before 11 a.m., according to Lieutenant Rachel Mickens. Police did not make any arrests, she said.
Court officers at Framingham District Court could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
On April 4, Ryan Sweatt, 36, was driving on Route 85 in Hopkinton when he “became enraged in an apparent road rage incident with another vehicle,” according to prosecutors. At one point, some of the occupants got out of the other car and Sweatt allegedly “made a U-turn at a high rate of speed and struck the victim in the roadway,” prosecutors said.
Destini Decoff, 26, died from her injuries at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester two days later.
On April 5, Sweatt pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, operating to endanger, and a marked lanes violation.
He was later charged with murder. On Tuesday, he was ordered held without bail. He will return to court on May 30.
On Facebook, Tracy Decoff recalled her daughter as her best friend and promised to obtain justice for her.
“you know I don’t break promises & i promise you with every ounce of my being I will get justice for you regardless of what it takes!” Decoff wrote the day after her daughter died. “go spread those beautiful wings & fly without pain & suffering . . . as our family says see ya love ya.”
Information from previous Globe reports was used in this story.
Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_.