DA Investigating Motive Behind Beverly Shooting

No criminal wrongdoing has been found – beyond the initial shooting - and the investigation into a motive is ongoing after Friday night’s shooting outside a Starbucks in North Beverly, Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett announced on Monday.

In addition, the public is not in danger , allegedly by Sgt. Kenneth Nagy, and , according to the District Attorney's office.

Nagy’s suicide has made any prosecution of Nagy “moot,” said Blodgett’s spokesman Carrie Kimball Monahan.

“As previously stated, the meeting between the off-duty officers was planned, the shooting was not random, and there appears to be no ongoing public safety concerns,” Kimball Monahan said in a prepared statement issued on Monday afternoon. She said no further comment would be made on Monday.

Kimball Monahan on Monday afternoon sought to clarify her earlier comments that said the District Attorney’s office would not investigate a motive in the shooting. The motive is not relevant to any prosecution of Nagy, she said, but “is of course relevant to the broader investigation by the Massachusetts State Police, the Hamilton and Beverly Police Departments, and (the District Attorney’s) Office.”

That investigation continues, she said.

“That investigation remains ongoing and includes inquiry into any and all criminal activity surrounding the incident, though none has been revealed apart from the shooting itself.

Beverly Police Officer Jason Lantych was shot twice by Nagy – once in the leg and once in the wrist – outside the Starbucks on Enon Street in North Beverly at about 5:48 p.m. on Friday.

Shortly after the shooting, State Police said they were searching Hamilton and Wenham, as well as other areas, for the suspect, who at that time was not named.

Then, at a news conference at about 10 p.m. on Friday at the Beverly Police Department, Blodgett announced that Nagy was wanted in connection with the shooting and asked for the public’s help in locating him.

About a half hour later he was spotted pulling into the parking lot at the shooting scene, behind the Starbucks and adjacent Bertucci’s. As police approached, he was found dead in his Saab sport utility vehicle with a gunshot to the head. An autopsy on Saturday determined it was a suicide.