The man accused of wounding two people in a chaotic shooting spree Monday on Memorial Drive in Cambridge has pleaded not guilty to six felonies and two misdemeanor charges.
Tyler E. Brown of Boston was arraigned Thursday via Zoom from a hospital bed, where he’s being treated for gunshot wounds.
Tyler Brown appeared from a hospital bed for a virtual arraignment on Thursday. (Screenshot of Zoom)
Brown, flanked by his lawyers, had his eyes closed in bed, his head nodded to the side, for the entirety of the hearing. He did nod when Cambridge District Court Judge David Frank asked if he could hear.
Earlier, Brown’s public defender, Carolyn McGowan, asked to push back the arraignment by an hour because of the drugs hospital staff had administered in the morning.
His next court date — a dangerousness hearing — is scheduled for next Thursday. The judge ordered him to remain in custody, either in the hospital or in jail, until then.
One of the two shooting victims Monday, a man who was struck in the back of the head, has since been released from the hospital, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain said. Another driver who was shot four times in the leg remains hospitalized.
About an hour before the shootings, Brown had been in touch with his parole officer and brandished a gun in a video call, according to a state police report. Brown has previously been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress and was released from McLean psychiatric hospital three days prior to the shootings.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan described Brown’s criminal history going back to 1994, when he was convicted of armed robbery in Michigan. He also was convicted of escape in Michigan in 1997 and drug offenses in New Hampshire in 2007.
In Massachusetts, he has been convicted of multiple assault and gun-related charges, most recently in 2021, when he was convicted of firing at officers in Boston’s South End.
At the 2021 sentencing, a Suffolk Superior Court judge ordered Brown to serve five to six years, instead of the 10 to 12 years prosecutors had sought.
“Mr. Brown, I do realize I’m kind of taking a chance on you,” the judge told him.
With reporting from the Holly Ramer and Michael Casey of the Associated Press.
This article was originally published on May 14, 2026.
