10.Lauren Woods — Direct
195 linesLAUREN WOODS, duly sworn
COURT CLERK: Have a seat. State your name, spell your last name for the record, keep your voice up and speak into the mic so everyone can hear you.
LAUREN WOODS: Lauren Woods, L-A-U-R-E-N W-O-O-D-S.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Good afternoon. You're a Boston police officer?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, I am.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long have you been a Boston police officer?
LAUREN WOODS: I've been on the department for about four and a half years.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And what did you do before you became a police officer?
LAUREN WOODS: I worked at the mayor's office of neighborhood services for the City of Boston.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And what was your role there at the neighborhood services?
LAUREN WOODS: I was the Dorchester coordinator liaison, one of his outreach people for all the neighborhoods.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Are you from Boston originally?
LAUREN WOODS: I'm from Dorchester originally, yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you go to school here?
LAUREN WOODS: I did. I went to Boston Latin School and then I went to UMass Amherst.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When you were in the neighborhood coordinator, what type of activities did you do?
LAUREN WOODS: I would represent the mayor -- at the time Mayor Menino -- in and out of community meetings, civic meetings, events in the neighborhood that he'd attend, neighborhood coffee hours. I would represent him at the zoning board of appeals, licensing unit and things of that nature.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, in your capacity as the neighborhood services coordinator, had you had occasion to meet the family of Martin Richard?
LAUREN WOODS: I've met them several times. I've known them since 2006, since I started. Bill is a very involved community member, involved with the Ashmont-Adams Neighborhood Association, St. Mark's Main Street. And we actually did an event at their house where the BigBelly recycle bins were the first distributed at their home in the neighborhood.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When's the first time you saw Martin?
LAUREN WOODS: On Denise's hip at a civic meeting, probably when he was one.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What have been your duties on the Boston police force?
LAUREN WOODS: I have been assigned to area South Boston, C-6; followed by E-18, Hyde Park; then Roxbury, B-2; and I lastly went to District 4 in the South End-Back Bay. And now I'm currently assigned to the Youth Violence Strike Force, also known as the Gang Unit.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Back on April 15th of 2013, were you assigned to B-4?
LAUREN WOODS: I was assigned to District 4, D-4, yeah.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: D-4. I'm sorry. District 4 is the Back Bay area?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, it is.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And what was your particular assignment?
LAUREN WOODS: ^ I was Delta 1 on -- 3 D unit, which was a rapid unit, and we were assigned to the Back Bay.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So on April 15, 2013, you weren't working the marathon?
LAUREN WOODS: I was not assigned to the actual event, no.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Had you worked the marathon in previous years?
LAUREN WOODS: I had worked the year before. I was on the bicycles for the day where we would do crowd control and -- specifically in the areas of where a younger population would be hanging out. So we rode out all the way to Brighton, we rode the route all the way back in, and kept control over Audubon Circle for the rest of the day -- the rest of the afternoon.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And when you were doing that mobile patrol, what was your primary function?
LAUREN WOODS: Crowd control. Just checking the crowds, keeping order, making sure any public drinking really wasn't going on, that nature.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I'm going to draw you to a little after 2:30 in the afternoon on April 15th. What did you do?
LAUREN WOODS: About 2:30 my partner and I received a radio call to dispatch to the Prudential Center for a shoplifter in the Microsoft store in the Prudential Center. And so we responded there, and we were in the Prudential Center around 2:30.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Can you describe the Prudential Center for folks who may not know what it is?
LAUREN WOODS: The Prudential Center is a mall along Boylston Street that also has entrances on Dalton Street on the back side, Ring Road. And it's -- it has multiple stores. The particular area of the Microsoft store is along a corridor near the food court all the way out to the Boylston Street exit.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And just --
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Could we call up Exhibit 774 which was published to the jury yesterday?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Officer Woods, do you recognize what this is?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, I do. It's a mockup of Boylston Street.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And if I zoom in on this portion, do you see where the Prudential Center is on this?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes. That's basically above the vestibule of the stairway and exit from the Prudential Center.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And you can tap on the screen if you just use some pressure with the pad of your finger. And just flag where the Prudential Center is. Is it also known as the Pru?
LAUREN WOODS: The Pru, yeah.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Thank you. And so you and your partner responded to the Pru?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And when you got there, what did you do?
LAUREN WOODS: We were speaking with the manager at the Microsoft store to find out what occurred in the store. This person attempted to steal merchandise from their store. It's actually a very open wide store; it's not just one door in and out. And while we were speaking with them, people started screaming frantically and running in the corridor outside of that store in the direction away from Boylston Street, so towards where I was located.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: All right. So turning back to the diagram quickly, were you somewhere inside the Prudential Center where I just indicated?
LAUREN WOODS: Yup. Just further in.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Further inside the building?
LAUREN WOODS: Further inside. That was the exit in the corridor where everybody was coming from.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And were people coming into the building as in the direction of the arrow that I just made?
LAUREN WOODS: That is correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And incidentally, while we have this up, does this appear to be a fair and accurate depiction of Boylston Street as far as you know?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: There's been some question as to -- do you see these things?
LAUREN WOODS: Trees.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And is there something at the base of those trees?
LAUREN WOODS: Grates.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How do you know that?
LAUREN WOODS: I know that there's grates on all the trees on Boylston Street. It was a handicap accessibility issue under Mayor Menino, and he had to install grates underneath all of the trees.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So a bunch of people start running into the Prudential Center?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What happened next?
LAUREN WOODS: As people were running through screaming, I knew something was wrong. So I left the situation I was in, got over the radio, and started running against the grain. Over my radio, handheld, I said to operations, "What do you have on Boylston Street? People are screaming and running in the Prudential Center." And they said -- they responded with, "There's a possible fire." And I said -- I kept running outside. As I approached outside I heard a loud boom, and I looked outside right in front of that area and I said, "I don't see a fire. I don't know if there's fireworks." They said ShotSpotter is going off, which is a program that the city has to identify some type of noise. Sometimes it will actually pick up backfires of cars as well. And at that time I looked to my right and saw that there was smoke in the air, and just started running towards what I thought was something wrong had happened with some type of explosion.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So back on 774, when you came out onto Boylston Street, approximately where were you on this graphic?
LAUREN WOODS: (Witness indicates.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And so when you heard the noise, were you inside the building or had you already come out of the building?
LAUREN WOODS: I was approaching the outside and heard the loud noise.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: All right. And then once you got out, what did you see?
LAUREN WOODS: When I got out, I saw people -- people running away from my right-hand side. So if I traveled from down the street towards the Mandarin, they were running against -- towards me.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So this is the Mandarin Hotel here where I highlighted?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So people were running in this direction?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And for the record, I just drew a leftward arrow on the graphic. What did you do after you saw that?
LAUREN WOODS: I ran down the street, stopping at anyone I had seen that looked like they were upset. Particularly one female was on the side of the ground somewhere in front of the Mandarin. I asked her if she was okay. She said she was fine, that there's people injured worse than her and to keep going. So I kept running further down Boylston Street. I saw a female in the middle of the road frantically screaming and crying on the phone, yelling that there was a bomb. And I asked her if she was okay, and she said, "There's a bomb." And I said, "Are you okay?" "I'm fine." Then I was just trying to get her off the street. I went into a type of control mode. Police are supposed to control chaos. We train for riot training and any time that there's a type of victory in the city of Boston with a sports team. I felt like it's something you have to do, crowd control. So I was just trying to clear the street. And we also have active shooter training, and that teaches you to continue to go further if there's people that don't really need your help immediately right in front of you. So that's why I kept running. And I found myself at the corner of Ring Road where you have the First Republic Bank, I think.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Down in the right-hand corner?
LAUREN WOODS: Where there are barriers for the crowds, for people running the marathon to stay on one side of the barriers. So I was trying to just pull the barriers to keep people off the street.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. I've just reframed the image. Can you just mark on 774 approximately where you set up?
LAUREN WOODS: (Witness complies.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And there were barricades there preventing people from going --
LAUREN WOODS: Steel barricades.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And this is Ring Road over here?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long were you there trying to move the barricades?
LAUREN WOODS: It could only have been a few seconds because I realized as I looked around, I looked across the street, there were still injured -- there were injured people on the ground in front of the Forum restaurant. And so I ran over to see if I could help there because that seemed more important than any crowds.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So did you then run over in this direction?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, I did.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And that's -- I made an arrow towards the Forum restaurant. Is that right?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, you did.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What did you see when you got there?
LAUREN WOODS: I saw a couple of victims on the ground. Specifically, I saw an Asian female being surrounded by an EMT, a firefighter, innocent -- some bystanders of some sort, some citizens in plainclothes just trying to assist in any way. So I found -- it seemed like there was just an opening for me to go and attend to this person, who I later found out was Lingzi Lu. And I went to the ground and saw that she had been vomiting profusely, and continued to vomit as they were doing chest compressions on her. So I ran to her side and tried to just remove the vomit from her mouth and her airways to clear the airways to make sure she was getting breaths.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. Let me stop you there. Were there a lot of people around the area or -- both around that woman as well as others?
LAUREN WOODS: There were several people around her. That's why I said there seemed to just be an opening, like one opening that I could come in and help at that angle. And I know there was other people around, but my focus just was drawn to that location.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: About how long had it been since you heard that boom before you exited the Prudential Center and when you got to Lingzi Lu?
LAUREN WOODS: It could have only been a minute or so.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So you had run all the way down the street, you had moved some of the barricades and then you made it over?
LAUREN WOODS: Right.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Was there any smell in the air when you got there?
LAUREN WOODS: Yeah, I smelled, like, the residue of smoke. The way I would describe it is if you were at the fireworks display at the Esplanade or a Memorial Day service where they pull off cannons, and you were near the cannons, you would smell that powdery smell from that. That's what it smelled like.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So when you got down to Ms. Lu, were people already working on her?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And was somebody already performing CPR?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: You said you made observations that her -- she had vomited. Is that right? Have you had any medical training?
LAUREN WOODS: My medical training consists of I was a lifeguard for six-plus years growing up. So continued first aid, CPR training. And the Boston Police Department provides CPR training. So I'm up to date on CPR, first aid, and I had just -- actually, prior to that day, just a few weeks before had been recertified.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Recertified in CPR?
LAUREN WOODS: In CPR and first aid.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: On the Boston police force?
LAUREN WOODS: On the Boston Police Department.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And so on this graphic, can you just make a circle around the general vicinity in which you recall being with Lingzi Lu?
LAUREN WOODS: It's not...
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: It's not coming out? And you just made a circle right in front of the Forum restaurant.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And this might be a good time to ask Mr. Lyness, with the Court's permission, to create a screen capture of that.
COURT CLERK: The image has been captured. We're just looking into printing it now. But it's been captured and saved.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Thank you. I'll move on.
BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Officer Woods, what did you do when you saw Ms. Lu and saw that she had vomited?
LAUREN WOODS: I attempted to clear her airways by sticking my fingers down her throat to remove the vomit, tilting her head to the side to continue to open up that airway.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Are you trained to do that as part of performing CPR?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And it's because you need to breathe to have CPR function, correct?
LAUREN WOODS: You do.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Was there any way that there were -- the people who were already responding to her were getting air into her lungs?
LAUREN WOODS: I don't know when she started vomiting, so I would think that they were able to get air in there until she started doing that.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you make any other observations of what her injuries may have been?
LAUREN WOODS: I briefly saw that her lower torso had extensive injuries, specifically to her legs. I could see blood, flesh, bone. But my focus just became what I could do. And there was people working on her lower half, so I stayed with what I know, the CPR and clearing her airways.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: All right.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Can we call up Exhibit 2149? This is for just the Court.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Ms. Woods, did I show you four photos yesterday, and did you recognize yourself in all of them?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, I did.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: All right. And I just put up 21-49. Do you see yourself in the photo?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, I do.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And where are you in the photo? Before you make a mark on it, just describe where you are.
LAUREN WOODS: Oh, I am in the left lower corner. You can see a police patch on my right arm.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And the four photos, 21-49 through 21-52, are those fair and accurate depictions of what the scene was like that you had arrived on near the Forum restaurant on April 15, 2013?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I'd move Exhibits 21-49 through -52 into evidence.
THE COURT: All right.
(Government Exhibit Nos. 21-49 through 21-52 received into evidence.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And I'd ask to publish -49 please.
BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, Officer Woods, would you just draw a circle around yourself on this picture?
LAUREN WOODS: (Witness complies.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And is that you?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes, that's a zoomed-in picture of me.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And there are several people appearing to be hunched over something on the ground. Can you describe what that is?
LAUREN WOODS: That's Lingzi Lu.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, when you cleared her airway -- and I think I noticed you had gloves on. Why did you put gloves on?
LAUREN WOODS: I put the gloves on as I basically was responding to the scene. When I saw injured people, I always carry gloves in case I have any contact with individuals and any type of bodily fluids of some sort.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So did you lean over and -- hunch down and get down on your knees?
LAUREN WOODS: I went right to her side and got down -- was crouched down on my knees, on my shins, kneeling, and tilting her head to the side and clearing her throat from the vomit.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What was her reaction after you cleared her throat?
LAUREN WOODS: I would say that her whole body was shaking, quivering. She had vomit in her hair, debris in her hair, and her eyes had kept rolling in and out of facing forward and looking.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And were you communicating with the other responders?
LAUREN WOODS: Yeah. I mean, the EMT had been doing chest compressions, and at a certain point after I had arrived an EMT said, "You know she's not going to make it," and said that they had to move on to help other victims, because as you could see from that scene in the picture, there were other victims still in the area. So I moved around and I continued chest compressions on her.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And as you started doing chest compressions of her, did you make any observations of her?
LAUREN WOODS: I made eye contact with her. As I said, her eyes would roll in and out. But you know when you make eye contact with someone. Her eyes appeared shaky, like she couldn't understand what was going on to her. She didn't, like, realize maybe what had happened. But she was still with us. And I just kept talking to her. At that point right prior to getting to -- myself doing the chest compressions, another citizen that was there had given me her bag and I had seen that there was a Boston University identification card with her name, Lingzi Lu, so it was at that time I understood who she was. So I just kept talking to her as I did chest compressions saying, "Lingzi, stay with us. You can do this. You're going to be okay. Stay strong." And as I said, I made eye contact with her and her eyes would roll back and forth.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long do you think you were doing chest compressions on her?
LAUREN WOODS: It couldn't have been that long. Maybe a minute or two. There was a firefighter there that took over utilizing the pump that's used for pumping air into her mouth with a mask. And he asked if I needed to switch out, which is done many times in CPR, and I said, "No, I got this. I'll keep going. I'm fine." But it wasn't much longer after that that someone came over with a backboard to get her, to move onto an ambulance to transport her out.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Can I get Exhibit 21-50, please?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is this you just starting to lean -- kneel down?
LAUREN WOODS: (Nonverbal response.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Exhibit 21-51. This is now you'd gotten down and you're starting to treat her?
LAUREN WOODS: Yeah, that was when I had her on the side trying to remove the vomit from her throat.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: 21-52. This is you again?
LAUREN WOODS: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What happened when the people with the backboard came?
LAUREN WOODS: We moved her body onto the backboard and rushed her over to an ambulance right in the middle of the street within feet, and got her onto the back of an ambulance. And a paramedic went on and told us to take her off because she was gone and he needed to keep the ambulance available for people who they could save and people that they could bring to the hospital. So we took her back off. And he kept a white sheet over her, a cover. And the paramedic asked someone to stay with the body of Lingzi and to stay with her until further notice. So I immediately volunteered and another officer that I don't know who it was stayed with me. And we basically were two storefronts over at that point set back on the sidewalk basically in front of Crate and Barrel and stayed with her covered because she was part of the crime scene now.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When somebody gave you her Boston University ID, did they tell you anything more about her?
LAUREN WOODS: It was a female, a lady, older lady that gave it to me and said that she had been with two of her friends and that she didn't know who they were but they were both gone. One was definitely injured, and that this was her bag, Lingzi's bag.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: After you were with Lingzi and she had been covered, what happened next?
LAUREN WOODS: We stayed on-scene. And shortly thereafter they thought that there might be a third device on the street, so they were clearing the area of Boylston Street by Ring Road, the Mandarin. And I was ordered to leave her by my actual captain, Captain Ivens. And I said, "Well, let's take her with us if there's a third device. We shouldn't just leave her here." And he said, "No, you're alive. You need to go. She's part of the crime scene. You need to get off the street."
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: After you -- so you challenged, essentially, your captain's order?
LAUREN WOODS: I did. Which I usually don't do.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Why did you do that?
LAUREN WOODS: I just at that point thought of her family and thought of her face in tact, and if there was a third device I couldn't imagine if she was injured even further and they couldn't get to see their daughter, sister, et cetera -- you know, at that time I didn't know her background, that they wouldn't get to see her again. And I have personal experience with that as my cousin was killed in Iraq and I never got to see him again, so that went through my mind.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you ultimately comply and you left the scene?
LAUREN WOODS: I did.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: At some point later did you meet Lingzi's parents?
LAUREN WOODS: I met them when they traveled in to Boston from China. I had reached out to the Boston Police Department -- I mean, Boston University Police and told them who I was and that I had been with Lingzi when she passed. So they kept me involved and informed of anything that happened with their campus as well as when they came to visit the scene on Boylston Street, I was able to be there with them. And we went to that location and we had a little prayer service. They wanted to know where she was exactly laying on the ground. And I just told them that she wasn't alone when she died.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Thank you.
MS. CONRAD: No questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: Officer, thank you. You may step down.
(The witness is excused.)
MS. CONRAD: May we approach for a minute?
THE COURT: No, we'll address it later.
MS. CONRAD: Thank you.
MR. MELLIN: The United States calls Roseann Sdoia.