DA says MGH shooter, Paul Langone, acted lawfully

BOSTON - An off-duty special officer did nothing wrong when he shot and killed a man who attacked a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital on Tuesday, the district attorney said.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said Paul Langone, 33, of Reading, heard the screams of Dr. Astrid Desrosiers on the fifth floor of an MGH office building on Staniford Street. Langone entered the doctor’s office and saw 37-year-old Reading man Jay Carciero stabbing the doctor.

Langone took out his gun, for which he has a valid license, and told Carciero to drop the knife. Carciero did not comply, and Langone shot multiple times, hitting Carciero twice, Conley said.

Carciero died of his injuries. Desrosiers is being treated for multiple, life-threatening stab wounds, but she is expected to survive.

When police arrived, Langone indentified himself to police as the shooter and was later released from custody and was not charged.

Police investigated possible links between Langone and Carciero, since they both live in the same town, but they could not find any history of a relationship prior to Tuesday’s shooting.

“That investigation remains ongoing and active, but the evidence at the scene, the shooter's statements, and the accounts of multiple witnesses all indicate that Mr. Langone acted lawfully when he discharged his firearm. There is strong evidence that he saved the doctor's life, and possibly other lives, in doing so,” Conley said.

Conley would not say why Langone was in the medical office to begin with, but said he was there for a legitimate reason.

Investigators have not been able to interview Desrosiers yeat because of her condition.

A lawyer for Carciero’s family, James Perullo, says the knife Carciero used belonged to Carciero’s son.

Perullo said, as far as he knows, Carciero did not have a violent past.