David Glantz heard the gunshots early Saturday morning.
“It was a big barrage of shots,” Glantz said in an interview on Monday afternoon. He lives close to the store he owns — Buckeye Bros Smoke Shop and Harry’s Caffe — located at 974 Main Street in Springfield.
Around 2 a.m. Saturday, police responded to a call about a man acting aggressively at MGM Springfield’s casino who was suspected of being armed with a gun. By the time they caught up to the man — later identified as William Tisdol, 48, of Hartford, Conn. — police and Tisdol exchanged gunfire, according to Massachusetts State Police and the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office.
Tisdol was shot near Union and Main streets. Officers requested an ambulance and gave him medical aid. He was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where he later died, according to the district attorney’s office.
When Glantz walked to his shop on Saturday morning around 6:45 a.m., police tape and cones blocked him from opening his store and an officer told him he couldn’t open his store yet. He later got a call that the scene had cleared by around 9 a.m.
“You know, it’s not nothing unusual,” Glantz said, who has owned his business for over 30 years. He compared the incident to shootings that happen in major cities like Boston or Hartford, but at the same time, said he “didn’t feel threatened at all.”
“At two o’clock in the morning I’m in bed,” Glantz said. “Stuff like that is going to happen at two o’clock.”
A few blocks down from the intersection of Union and Main streets, the owner of Tony’s Famous Barber Shop described the shooting as a “random act.” Dino Isotti, whose family has owned the barber shop since 1974, said he doesn’t believe the neighborhood should be perceived as a “danger zone.”
“This is very safe,” Isotti said about the downtown area. “Nobody breaks into cars. Nobody pops tires. Not over here.”
Isotti commended the improvements made by MGM Springfield when it built its $1 billion resort in 2018.
“There’s a lot of little stores and now it’s beautiful,” Isotti said.
MGM did not respond to several requests for comment about the incident.
Tisdol and use-of-force investigation
CT Insider reported on Monday that Tisdol’s wife told the outlet that the man’s 15-year-old son was wounded in a shooting by New Britain, Conn., police more than five years ago. Tisdol’s wife, Dondi Morrell, said Massachusetts police notified her Tisdol was killed early Saturday morning in Springfield.
Morrell said Tisdol was the father of their eight children and a husband of 29 years and their son, Caleb, was injured in a shooting that killed 20-year-old Zoe Dowdell in 2017, according to the outlet.
Authorities announced that an investigation is underway into the fatal use of force by police in Tisdol’s killing.
“The investigation will rely on nationally-recognized best practices for conducting an impartial and transparent investigation into what led to a police officer’s use of deadly force, resulting in a death,” the office of Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said in a statement. Members of Springfield Police Department’s Gaming Enforcement Unit and the state police assigned to the same unit responded to the incident.
The investigation will draw from all available evidence, including body-worn camera footage, public and private surveillance systems, witness statements, investigative reports, 9-1-1 calls and dispatch logs, the district attorney’s office said.
“There is no time table for the conclusion of the investigation, but the Hampden District Attorney’s Office will move expeditiously in order to provide all those concerned and the public with clear and objective findings,” Gulluni’s office said.
2022 police shooting
On Jan. 27, 2022, a Springfield man who repeatedly shot a flare gun at police in the parking lot of MGM Springfield was shot and seriously wounded. Anthony Nguyen, 24, was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon and armed assault with intent to murder in connection with the incident.
On that night, Nguyen was barred entry to the casino around midnight when security officers spotted what they believed to be ammunition in his backpack, MassLive previously reported. Officers confronted Nguyen in an alleyway outside when he fired the flare gun, hitting an officer in the hand before fleeing, investigators said at the time.
As Nguyen ran away and crossed into State Street, he fired at two more police officers arriving at the scene. The flares struck the front of the Juvenile Court building. Nguyen ran to the back of the parking garage, where officers said he continued to fire on them.
The shots eventually set off a frantic pursuit through the seventh floor of the casino’s enclosed garage, captured on police body camera footage, as Nguyen continued to fire flares.
Nguyen was shot by police and taken to Baystate Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
Officials in the city’s Law Department have said officers involved in the shooting have been “exonerated” by an internal review and the city’s Board of Police Commissioners.
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