Dashcam footage shown in court on the third day of the Karen Reed murder trial gave the public for the first time a glimpse of the night Boston police officer John O’Keefe was killed, but the footage was filled with heavy snow and darkness. hidden by police flashlights against a dark night sky.
The video was about three minutes long and was initially played in a quiet courtroom, with no comments or questions from the prosecution or defense.
Later, the attorneys sparred during testimony from first responders, giving conflicting accounts of what they heard. They depicted a “distraught” and “distraught” woman screaming, but it’s not clear what she actually said.
One first responder testified that he yelled, “I hit you, I hit you, oh my god, I hit you.” Another person testified: “He’s dead. He’s already dead.” A third person said the woman shouted: “Is he alive?”
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Jurors in Karen Reed’s murder trial watched body camera footage from the night Boston police officer John O’Keefe died. (AP/Canton Police Department)
Karen Reed sits in a courtroom during jury selection on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts. Reed, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend in an SUV in the middle of a nor’easter and leaving him for dead after a night of drinking. (David McGlynn/New York Post, via AP, Pool)
Blurry dashcam footage clearly showed a commotion in front of the police car and paramedics moving the stretcher containing O’Keefe’s body into the ambulance.
But in footage taken on January 29, 2022, outside Boston Police Officer Brian Albert’s home in the Boston suburb of Canton, Massachusetts, first responders had a hard time even telling themselves apart.
O’Keefe was found dead in 4 to 6 inches of snow, wearing a T-shirt and no shoes.
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Reed was charged with O’Keefe’s murder. Her prosecutors argued that she defended her boyfriend, O’Keefe, in his Lexus SUV during an altercation over her drunk driving.
Ms. Reed has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and her defense team says she has been involved in an elaborate investigation to protect the Albert family, an influential family with ties to law enforcement, first responders and local prosecutors. He claimed that he was part of a cover-up.
The dashcam video at the top shows Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe on a stretcher as paramedics rush him to an ambulance. (Canton Police Department)
Watch the full dashcam video shown in court
Two Canton first responders, Fire Lt. Anthony Frematti and Firefighter Kait McLaughlin, testified that they heard Reed incriminate himself by repeatedly saying, “I hit you.”
During cross-examination, Frematti appeared to retract his initial comments.
Mr. Reed’s leading attorney, Alan Jackson, asked him whether he had “heard those words before today in any police or grand jury setting.”
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“I don’t remember,” Frematti replied.
Canton Fire Department Lt. Francis Walsh said he heard a distraught woman screaming, “He’s dead, he’s already dead.”
Reed’s lawyer specifically asked Walsh whether it was “easily understood that what she said was, ‘He’s dead, he’s dead.'” Mr. Walsh replied, “That’s correct.”
Karen Reed arrives at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Greg Darr/Patriot Ledger)
Officer John O’Keefe takes the official mug shot. (Boston Police Department)
He also testified that he heard a woman yelling, “Are you alive?”
I think they were all over the map. David Yannetti, one of Mr. Reed’s attorneys, said of the testimony heard Thursday. “Everyone had a different interpretation of what was said, and I think a lot of it was unreliable.”
After the trial’s intense opening statements, which included some surprising accusations from the defense, jurors heard testimony from first responders and O’Keefe’s family.
On Friday, jurors visited the crime scene as testimony continued.
Karen Reed speaks with her attorney in the courtroom during jury selection Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Norfolk County Superior Court. (David McGlynn/New York Post, via AP, Pool)
Karen Reed departs Norfolk Superior Court after jury selection day on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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A Massachusetts jury has ruled that the then-46-year-old Boston police officer was killed by Reid in January 2022, as Reid’s defense alleges a cover-up scheme to protect a powerful local family. We plan to determine whether or not it is true.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.
