WALTHAM — Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Waltham Chief of Police Kevin O’Connell announced that Peter Simon, 54, of Woodsville, NH has been indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges including two counts of second degree murder for the deaths of Waltham Police Officer Paul Tracey, 58, and National Grid employee Roderick Jackson, 36, of Cambridge.
The incident occurred around 4 p.m. on Dec. 6, when Simon, driving a pickup truck on Totten Pond Road, made a sudden turn into the roadway, hitting an eastbound vehicle.
He proceeded to hit Tracey and Jackson before colliding with several more vehicles, abandoning his truck, and fleeing on foot.
Simon later confronted another responding officer, brandished a knife, and stole the officer’s cruiser, which he crashed on Winter Street before his arrest.
The Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section concluded that Simon was accelerating rapidly, reaching speeds around 62-63 mph at the time of the crash.
Simon faces charges that include second degree murder, motor vehicle homicide, armed robbery, armed carjacking, assault with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, operating to endanger, leaving the scene causing property damage, leaving the scene causing death, failure to stop for police, wanton destruction of property, and resisting arrest.
He is being held without bail and awaits arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court.
The case is being investigated by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Waltham Police, and Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorney’s Office, with prosecutors Christopher Tarrant and Michael Klunder leading the prosecution and Susie Marshall serving as the victim witness advocate.
Simon is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
