The pre-trial detainee shot in the emergency room of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary on Wednesday remains hospitalized and is not healthy enough to be arraigned on a new set of charges, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel C. Conley’s office said today.
Raymond Wallace, 36, was being held at the Middlesex County Jail on armed robbery charges when he was brought to the downtown Boston medical facility Wednesday by two armed Middlesex County deputy sheriffs.
When Wallace was allowed to use the bathroom, he allegedly grabbed for one deputy’s service pistol. During the ensuing struggle, a deputy was shot in the leg and Wallace was shot in the chest, officials said on Wednesday.
No one else was hurt during the burst of gunfire that led to the closure of the emergency room for six hours while law enforcement collected evidence and investigated the incident, officials said.
Wallace has been shot by police before. In 2001, he was shot multiple times by police when they tried to arrest him for trying to break into the Pizzi Farm Stand in Waltham. At the time, Wallace was masked, had two loaded firearms, and tried to take an officer’s gun away when they moved to arrest him, the Globe reported.
His current attorney, Raymond D. Buso, today said the Waltham confrontation nearly cost Wallace his life.
“He was on life support and he was expected to die on that case,’’ Buso said today.
Wallace recovered, and eventually pleaded guilty to robbery and unlawful possession of firearms charges in Middlesex Superior Court. He faced a new cluster of similar charges in Essex Superior Court in Salem for armed robberies in Peabody in 2010 and in Salem in 2011.
Buso said Wallace was mulling whether to accept a plea deal negotiated with Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office.
“There has been an offer made to him and he hasn’t accepted it,†Buso said. “It is pending at this point, a possible plea.â€
Although being prosecuted in Essex County, Wallace was being housed at the Middlesex jail because of “enemy issues†with other pre-trial detainees in Middlesex.
Wallace is now expected to face charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a public employee, and escape in Boston Municipal Court once his health improves.
A Mass. Eye and Ear spokeswoman today said the emergency room which reopened at 6 p.m. Wednesday, is operating on a normal basis today.
Colin A. Young can be reached at colin.young@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @ColinAYoung.
