10.Brendan O'Hearn — Direct
121 linesBRENDAN O'HEARN, duly sworn
COURT CLERK: State your name, spell your last name for the record, keep your voice up and speak into the mic.
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Brendan O'Hearn, O-'-H-E-A-R-N.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Good afternoon, Officer O'Hearn.
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Good afternoon.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Where are you currently employed?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: The Cambridge Police Department.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And are you a police officer there?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I am. I'm a detective there now.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long have you been with the Cambridge Police Department?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I transferred there in January of 2011. Prior to that I was a Watertown police officer, and I began there in April of 2006 when I attended the academy.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: If I could just ask you to bring that microphone a little bit closer to your mouth. You don't have to get it too close. Thank you. When did you start with the Watertown Police Department?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I went to the academy in April of 2006, so I believe I was on the street by September of 2006.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And how long have you been a detective with the Cambridge Police Department?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I just transferred to the detectives January of this year.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So back in April of 2013, what were your -- what was your rank at the Cambridge Police Department?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: A night patrolman. A patrolman assigned to nights.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And how long had you been on the Cambridge P.D. at that time?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Since January of 2011.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Before you became a police officer, did you have any special training aside from the academy that you talked about?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. When you became a police officer, did you have any emergency medical training?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: We -- yes, we do that in the academy. We do, I believe it's a week period, and we do annual in-service training which includes --
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Which includes --
BRENDAN O'HEARN: CPR.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: -- CPR and medical training?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Thank you. On April 18th of 2013, that Thursday night, were you working that day?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I was.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What was your assignment?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I was assigned to Central Square as a walking unit.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And what was your shift that night?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I believe it was the three-to-eleven shift the, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: You say you were on foot?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I was.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. Sometime after about 10 p.m., did anything out of the ordinary occur?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I was speaking with Officer Keno. He was operating a single-man cruiser in Central Square. I was talking to him in the 600 block of Massachusetts Avenue when a call came in for an armed robbery at the 7-Eleven in Central Square.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And so what did you do?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I got into his cruiser, and we responded to the area to check for suspects.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So you were already talking to him, so you just jumped in and went over to the 7-Eleven?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Correct.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: About how far away was that from where you were?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Very close proximity.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you make it to the 7-Eleven?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: We began to check the area. We never entered into the 7-Eleven.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What happened?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: While we were checking the area, we got a call for an officer down in the area of Vassar Street.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Vassar Street, is that near the MIT campus?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So what did you do?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: We immediately detoured and responded there.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How far of a drive is that from where you were?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: If I -- approximately quarter mile at the most, I would say. I can't be certain on that.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When you got there, what did you see?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: It was an MIT cruiser stationery, and Officer Collier was laying on the ground, face up, and there were MIT officers rendering assistance to him.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Were there any other police departments there at the time?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: That's just -- that's who I remember.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: About how many other police officers do you think were there?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I can't be certain. I can only remember two from my memory but...
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What did you do when you got there?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Myself and Officer Keno went over to them and we began to assist and -- with CPR. Officer Keno began to ventilate Officer Collier while I began to perform chest compressions.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How far, approximately, was Officer Collier lying from the front door of his cruiser?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: He was in close proximity -- very close proximity to the cruiser.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: It appeared like he had just been taken out of the cruiser?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: It appeared that way.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And were people already attending to him when you arrived?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: MIT officers were attending to him already.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When you went to go provide assistance, did you bring anything with you?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I did. I brought a medical bag that was in the cruiser which consisted of -- I just know it as an Ambu bag, just to assist -- which Officer Keno used for ventilations.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When you say "Ambu bag," you mean A-M-B-U bag?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And it has a bunch of medical supplies in it?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: There's a bunch of supplies in the bag itself, but it was a ventilatory-assistance device. I believe it's called an Ambu bag.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: As he went to ventilate, what did you do?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I began chest compressions.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay. And is that part of the CPR process?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you relieve whoever was attending to him?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: When you were over Officer Collier, what observations did you make of him?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: His face and his neck were covered in blood, he had some type of a wound to his head, there was blood coming from his mouth.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you hear anything?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: It sounded almost like a gurgling from his mouth.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: As you performed compressions, did he react in any way?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Not that I noted.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long do you think you were performing CPR on Sean Collier?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I couldn't be certain. It felt -- obviously, it felt like a long period of time, but I was assisted at some point by Officer Martins and Officer Pascoe. They responded. And Officer Martins assisted me with compressions, I got a break, and then I went back and did more chest compressions at some point. And we continued with that until the Cambridge Fire Department arrived and began to perform their interventions. And we continued CPR while they were doing their interventions until the ambulance came and he was transported.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did the Cambridge Fire Department had medics, paramedics, who were performing --
BRENDAN O'HEARN: They have a rapid response vehicle which I believe is staffed with two paramedics that arrived on-scene first.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: In addition to the wounds on his head and face area, did you see any other wound on Officer Collier?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: There was some type of trauma to one of his hands, but I can't recall which one it was.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How much of his body was covered with blood?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: His head and his neck. And while I was doing chest compressions, it was bloody there as well. I don't know if it was -- I'm not sure of the exact cause of that, but there was blood everywhere.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did it get transferred to you?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes, all over me.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did an ambulance arrive?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And what happened when the ambulance arrived?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: He was loaded into the ambulance. Officer Keno remained with him, assisting the fire department and the crew on the ambulance, and they responded to the hospital.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Were they still performing CPR?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So somebody had taken over for you again?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I continued with chest compressions right until we got to the ambulance, and then someone took over from there.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did you stay at the scene?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: I did.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What did you do after Sean Collier had left the scene?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: At that point it was a crime scene under the direction of Sergeant McHale. The area was taped off and I took over -- I began a log of all the people that were on the crime scene and then all the arriving people that were entering into the crime scene. I later turned that over to Officer O'Callaghan.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is that part of the securing-the-scene process?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: You have to have accountability for everyone who was on-scene.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: At this point you were still covered in blood?
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: One moment, your Honor.
(Counsel confer off the record.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Thank you.
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Thank you.
MR. WATKINS: No questions. Thank you, sir.
THE COURT: All right, Detective. Thank you. You may step down.
BRENDAN O'HEARN: Thank you.
(The witness is excused.)
MR. WEINREB: The United States calls Matthew Isgur.