MEDFORD — The man accused of gunning down motorists in heavy traffic on Memorial Drive in Cambridge earlier this week pleaded not guilty Thursday from his hospital bed, where’s being treated for injuries suffered in a shootout with State Police and an armed former Marine.
Tyler E. Brown IV, 46, appeared heavily medicated during his arraignment, which he participated in via video conference. Officials said he was shot in the “lower extremities.”
The shooting unfolded around lunchtime Monday, not long after a Massachusetts parole officer called 911 to report that Brown was suicidal and armed with an assault rifle. The officer said Brown had a long criminal record, including a 2020 shootout with Boston police in the South End, and a history of crack cocaine use and mental health problems; he had recently been discharged from a psychiatric hospital.
Brown didn’t speak during the 18-minute proceeding Thursday afternoon. He nodded once to confirm he could hear the judge, but spent most of the time with his head bent down and his eyes closed. With a blanket pulled up to his chin, Brown periodically opened his eyes for brief seconds, appearing exceedingly drowsy.
He was flanked by Carolyn I. McGowan and Josina Raisler-Cohn, Committee for Public Counsel Services attorneys appointed to represent him.
Brown was charged in Cambridge District Court with six felony and two misdemeanor charges, including two counts of assault to murder, two counts of attempted assault and battery with a firearm, and gun and ammunition charges.
In the Medford courthouse, not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf by District Court Judge David E. Frank.
Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole L. Allain asked the court to hold Brown without bail under the state’s dangerousness law, noting that his criminal history dates back decades. Brown was arrested as a teenager in 1994 in Michigan and charged with armed robbery. His other convictions include drug and gun offenses in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
A bail hearing was set for next Thursday; McGowan did not challenge the issue.
Allain summarized Brown’s alleged actions Monday, including three phone calls with a parole officer during which he repeatedly said he wanted to end his life, displayed the assault rifle he allegedly later used, and talked about crimes he committed but was not prosecuted for.
“These people are going to pay,” she quoted Brown as telling his parole officer not long before the shooting rampage. “I’m not going back to prison.”
In their final conversation, Brown displayed the firearm during a FaceTime conversation, standing in a kitchen the officer didn’t recognize, Allain said.
The officer called 911 and requested a well-being check on Brown at his home in Dorchester but he wasn’t home when officers got there. Boston police pinged his phone and tracked him to Cambridge.
Less than two hours after the 911 call, Brown allegedly began randomly shooting while walking down Memorial Drive. Motorists ran for cover, some hiding under their cars.
Brown was taken into custody after a state trooper and a Marine veteran returned fire.
Allain said two bullet holes were found in the driver’s side door of the Marine’s car. She said at least 70 spent shell casings were recovered from the scene.
Without identifying them by name, Allain said one victim was shot four times in one leg and the second was shot in the back of the head.
The shooting victims have been identified by family members as Casimir Bangoura, a Cambridge resident who was driving to the car wash, and another man whose first name is Felix, and is a father of eight. The family declined to provide his last name, but they said he was an MBTA Ride Services contract driver who drove himself to the hospital.
Brown was on parole for a shooting involving four Boston police officers in the South End in 2020, a case that has repeatedly raised questions about the relatively lenient sentence he received after a judge was persuaded by his intellectual gifts and his commitment to keeping his life on track.
When Brown was released from prison in May 2025 after serving that sentence, he was accepted into the Tufts University Prison Initiative’s yearlong re-entry program, which combines college coursework with housing, employment, and other wraparound services. According to university officials, Brown stopped attending the program in February.
Lea Skene can be reached at lea.skene@globe.com. Follow her on X @lea_skene. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.