In the most recent example, a Millbury officer was injured by a gunman who had barricaded himself in the Family Dollar store in Spencer.
The police chief in Uxbridge, where an officer was killed in January, said the support from the community has been overwhelming.
Sutton’s police chief, who arrived a year ago from Rhode Island, said he has been impressed by the way departments have supported one another.
It’s been an extremely difficult start to 2026 for Central Massachusetts police.
In the past month, four nearby towns – Uxbridge, Shrewsbury, Millbury and Sutton – have experienced traumatic events: an officer killed, an officer shot, a station rammed by a car and an officer lucky to escape serious injury.
“This has got to be, statistically, an aberration,” Uxbridge Police Chief Marc Montminy agreed when reached by the Telegram & Gazette Thursday, Feb. 5.
An outpouring of support has continued to flow to Montminy’s department following the tragic death of Officer Stephen LaPorta, 43, who was struck by a tractor-trailer while helping a motorist on an icy highway Jan. 7.
In the weeks following LaPorta’s death, three other departments nearby have since dealt with disturbing incidents.
A man allegedly seeking “suicide by cop” plunged his car into the lobby of Shrewsbury police headquarters Jan. 19.
On Monday, Feb. 2, a Sutton officer, Garrett Danna, escaped serious injury after being pinned inside his cruiser when it was struck by an alleged drunken driver on Route 146, just a few miles from where LaPorta was killed.
The following evening, Tuesday, Feb. 3, a Millbury officer, yet to be publicly identified, was shot by a barricaded suspect at a Family Dollar in Spencer.
The man who shot the officer, 35-year-old Worcester DPW worker Patrick Madison, was killed by the regional tactical unit of the Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council.
Millbury Police Chief Brian Lewos, in a statement Friday, Feb. 6, said his officer’s injuries are not life-threatening, and he “remains in good spirits as he faces a long road of recovery” ahead.
“Tuesday night’s incident was the latest reminder of the dangers law enforcement officers face daily,” he wrote.
Sutton Police Chief Thomas Calouro said the sequence of events of the past month reflect the “foundational reality” of law enforcement.
“None of us are ever far away from the reality that this profession remains, every day, one where when I come to work, I could lose my life, or have to take one,” he said.
The fact that officers from local departments have been on both sides of death in the past several weeks is difficult, he said; but it’s been heartening, he added, to see the system of local collaboration working as it should.
In all four events, Calouro said, officers from nearby communities offered support, whether it be mutual aid during events or helping cover calls during mourning.
Calouro, who came to Sutton from a larger department in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a year ago, said he’s been amazed at the collaboration among the small departments in the area.
“It’s proved itself [several] times over, in a very short period of time, that with law enforcement in Central Massachusetts, there are no boundaries,” he said. “Officers are listening on the radio, helping in real time, and then checking up on each other.”
He said the towns are small enough that officers really get to know not only each other, but often, at the department level, family members.
“It’s phenomenal,” he said. “But it also ripples, when stuff like this happens.”
Even before the incidents with Millbury and Sutton officers, the departments of those contiguous towns, as well as Uxbridge, banded together to honor LaPorta; they hosted a safe driving enforcement campaign in his memory on Jan. 31.
Calouro said calls he received from Montminy and Lewos following his officer’s injury days later meant a lot. Montminy said the outpouring his department has received from departments all over has been vital.
“Such a burden was lifted off my shoulders, because we knew everyone was grieving as a community, as opposed to just one department,” he said.
Montminy said so many people have sent gifts, letters and other support that the department had to create a running Excel sheet to keep track of everybody it wants to thank.
“All the major sports teams have stepped up to the plate,” he said, from the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics to the New England Patriots, who gifted LaPorta’s family tickets to this Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Montminy said LaPorta’s death, which state police are investigating, as well as the crash involving Danna reinforce the danger officers face, particularly on the highway, and the unpredictability of the profession.
“We typically don’t get these kinds of calls in this proximity,” he said. “You just don’t know when it’s going to happen.”
Montiminy said members of the public who want to continue to support LaPorta’s family should watch the department’s Facebook page. Upcoming fundraisers include a comedy show and hockey game.
“He was one of those guys who didn’t flinch [at danger],” Montminy said of LaPorta, who is survived by his wife and son.
Montminy noted that, while LaPorta’s death will ultimately fade from the headlines, “his family will be suffering from this incident for the rest of their lives.”