Crime & Safety

Witnesses: Sound of Shooting Outside Coffee Shop 'Not Normal'

Several witnesses recall the scene immediately after a shooting outside a Starbucks in North Beverly on Friday night, allegedly by Hamilton Police Sgt. Kenneth Nagy, who authorities said later committed suicide near the scene.

A witness to Friday night’s shooting in North Beverly – allegedly by off-duty Sgt. Kenneth Nagy – heard two loud bangs in front of Starbucks at the time of the shooting, he told New England Cable News.

“It was definitely not normal – like somebody dropping a package or a box or something,” Ricky Graf told NECN.

Graf also said that some customers were trapped inside the Starbucks for two hours while police investigated.

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“It looked like he was bleeding from his groin area,” one witness, who was not identified, told WCVB-TV.

Hours after the shooting, which seriously injured Beverly Police Officer Jason Lantych, some bloody clothes were still visible on the front steps of the coffee shop, as were some blood stains on the cement. At about 11 p.m., a crime scene cleanup crew arrived.

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The scene was roped off and several State Police and Beverly police officers stood by outside the coffee shop and neighboring Eastern Bank and Bertucci’s into the early morning hours of Saturday.

The first 911 call reporting the shooting was received by Beverly police at 5:48 p.m. on Friday, . Later in the evening, police announced that they were searching for Nagy and his 2008 black Saab sport utility vehicle as a suspect in the shooting.

Another witness, John Miller, told the Salem News that it appeared that Lantych knew Nagy. Later, Blodgett – at the press briefing - confirmed that they believe the two men knew eachother.

About a half hour after pleading for the public’s help in locating Nagy, a Beverly police officer at the shooting scene in North Beverly spotted the SUV pull into the parking lot and park near the railroad tracks in the rear of Starbucks.

Police approached and, for a moment, thought the vehicle was empty. But they soon spotted Nagy leaning back in his seat, WCVB-TV reported.

“There was no interaction before he committed suicide,” Blodgett told reporters at a late night Friday news conference near the shooting scene.

After Nagy was found dead in his SUV, police widened the cordoned off area near the plaza, telling curious onlookers to back up because it was a crime scene. A driveway to the rear of the plaza, between Bertucci’s and a closed mattress store in a neighboring strip plaza, was also cordoned off with crime scene tape.

Many details, including whether Nagy used his service weapon and a motive, , Blodgett spokesman Carrie Kimball Monahan said late Friday night.


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