February police shooting of Easton woman deemed justified
EASTON, Mass. (WLNE) — The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office released a report Thursday that said the shooting of a woman in crisis on Spooner Street in February was justified.
An officer shot and killed Marianne Griffiths on Feb. 5, while she was reportedly attempting to commit “suicide by cop.”
Police, firefighters, and EMTs responded to 32 Spooner St. after Griffiths’ son called 911 saying his mother was overdosing. Griffiths lived in the basement of the home, which is was owned by her parents.
The son told dispatchers that she had taken 20 doses of insulin and intended to commit suicide “to be with her [other] son,” who had died in a car accident on Dec. 31, 2022.
She also told him that she intended to commit “suicide by cop,” which first responders were reportedly not aware of.
First responders were called to Griffiths’ residence on four separate occasions since 2010. Those calls claimed that she was suicidal or was attempting suicide.
Police attempted to speak with Griffiths before she approached them with what appeared to be a rifle and made threats on the officers’ lives and her own.
The officers said they evacuated all other first responders and Griffiths parents from the building before setting up a “defensive position” outside the home while waiting for a SWAT unit to arrive.
Police said when Griffiths approached the front door, one officer shot her after she pointed the rifle out the door’s window.
An autopsy declared that Griffiths was killed after a bullet struck her heart. She was also found to not be overdosing on insulin.
The rifle she was carrying was found to be a Daisy Powerline 901 air-rifle designed for firing BBs, and did not have an orange tip.
The District Attorney’s Office determined that the killing was justified, and an act of self-defense after an investigation involving interviews with first responders who were on the scene, the autopsy of Griffiths body, the layout of the house, her prior mental health history, and the death of her son.
