DA Hayden Clears Off-Duty Officer in Fatal Chick-fil-A Shooting on Boylston Street

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden has ruled that an off-duty Boston police officer was legally justified when he shot and killed a man who was trying to stab a teenager inside the Chick-fil-A restaurant on Boylston Street in March 2025, and has closed the case without criminal charges.

Hayden's office announced the finding on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. The six-page report, dated Oct. 15, concludes that Officer Jose Valenzuela "fired his off-duty handgun in a lawful use of force that was necessary to prevent Mr. Jaramillo from killing or seriously wounding the younger male or anyone else."

Lemark Jaramillo, 32, was shot on March 1, 2025, inside the restaurant at 569 Boylston St. in the Copley Square area, according to the report. At the time, he "had ignored commands to drop a knife and was attempting to stab a 17-year-old male he had chased into the restaurant in retaliation for a fight moments before," Hayden wrote.

Hayden assigned Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, chief of public accountability, to review the evidence, which included surveillance and body camera video, police reports, recorded interviews, ballistics and the autopsy. The Boston Police Department's Firearm Discharge Investigation Team, led by Sgt. Det. Lucas Taxter, interviewed Valenzuela and at least 55 civilians, mainly customers and employees of the restaurant. The department's own report found the shooting "objectively reasonable" and within BPD rules; Hayden said his office made an independent determination.

According to the report, the events began a few doors away at the Chipotle restaurant at 553 Boylston St. At about 5:19 p.m., Jaramillo entered, did not order food and asked three times for the door code to the second-floor men's room. On his trips upstairs he passed three teenagers eating near the restrooms. Video showed no interaction at that point. As the teenagers left, one of them and Jaramillo bumped shoulders on the stairway.

The teenagers briefly went outside, then returned, and two of them went back upstairs to the hallway outside the restroom, the report says. Video showed one of them bang on the men's room door several times with his fist. About 20 seconds later Jaramillo came out and the two began fighting. The video did not establish who threw the first punch, but it showed the teenager gaining the upper hand and punching Jaramillo at least twice in the face, breaking his sunglasses and cutting him near the eyebrow.

As diners scattered, Jaramillo "produced and snapped open a folding knife," the report says. The teenager retreated, at one point holding a chair between them, then ran down the stairs and out onto Boylston Street, with Jaramillo following "at a fast walk." The teenagers ran into the Chick-fil-A several doors west.

Valenzuela was inside near the entrance, in line to pick up food while his wife waited in their car outside, according to the report. He was off duty, in civilian clothes and carrying his private 9 mm handgun in a concealed holster. He told investigators he saw the teenagers rush in, one of them visibly upset, followed by a man with blood on his forehead and a knife in his right hand.

Restaurant video, which had no audio, showed Valenzuela draw his gun and follow Jaramillo into the crowded waiting area as customers and employees tried to flee. Numerous witnesses said he loudly identified himself as "police" and repeatedly ordered Jaramillo to "drop the knife." Jaramillo kept advancing with the knife held overhead, the report says. The teenager ran out of room near the counter and doubled back toward the exit, where a group of customers, including children, was huddled against a wall.

Jaramillo caught up to him from behind. With Valenzuela a few feet away, Jaramillo raised the knife again and "was literally about to plunge it downward" into the teenager's back when the officer fired three times, the report says. All three rounds struck Jaramillo, two in the chest and one in the left shoulder. He fell, let go of the knife and slid it across the floor toward the officer.

Valenzuela then called 911. "I shot a suspect, he was trying to stab a kid, can you send EMS and more units over here, please?" he said, according to the report. The recording captured him trying to give medical aid with a civilian's help. Jaramillo was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner found that two of the gunshot wounds perforated his lungs. The third bullet passed through him and was recovered in the kitchen; no one else was hit.

Valenzuela told investigators he closed the distance to Jaramillo to reduce the chance that someone else would be hurt. Although officers are trained not to get close to someone with a sharp weapon, he said, "you want to make sure that you have a clear shot and not hurt anybody else."

A footnote in the report discloses a disciplinary finding that had not been part of earlier coverage. Valenzuela said his personal handgun was smaller and easier to conceal than his .40-caliber duty weapon. The department "later issued him a spoken reprimand because he had not taken a separate safety course for off-duty weapons as required by department rules," the report says. Hayden wrote that this "has no bearing" on the findings that the officer acted reasonably and lawfully.

The two teenagers involved left the scene but came forward to police that night. Their accounts described Jaramillo as the aggressor at Chipotle. Hayden wrote that their statements "contradicted both each other and the Chipotle video and minimized their own role in the events," but that this did not change the legal analysis, because Valenzuela was unaware of the earlier fight and knew only what he saw. Boston Uncut is not naming the teenagers.

Citing Graham v. Connor and the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Commonwealth v. Asher, Hayden concluded that Valenzuela had "no option other than shooting him in order to protect the safety of others." The report calls the case a "tragic matter." CBS News Boston and other outlets reported the finding Wednesday.