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Stephanie Olimpia Gerardi

Age : 38

Gender : Female

Race : White

Date : 08/14/2021

Location : 3 Alfred Road

City : Saugus

County : Essex

State : Massachusetts

Agency : Saugus Police Department

Officer(s) :Sean Murphy; David Harris; Domenic Montano

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during mental health crisis

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/14/2021, Saugus Police Officer Sean Murphy shot and killed 38-year-old Stephanie Gerardi inside her home at 3 Alfred Road after her family contacted police seeking help getting her psychiatric treatment. Officers David Harris and Domenic Montano were also involved in the response. Gerardi's family has consistently disputed the police characterization of the encounter, and in 2024 her estate, sister and children filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit challenging the shooting and the police response to her mental-health crisis. The litigation remained active in 2026.
Gerardi had struggled with serious mental-health problems for approximately 15 years. Her sisters described her condition as bipolar disorder with schizophrenic tendencies and said she functioned well when taking her medication but could become severely disorganized and manic when she stopped. Her family had repeatedly obtained involuntary psychiatric treatment for her under Massachusetts' Section 12 process.
On August 14, Gerardi's mental condition had deteriorated. She had reportedly been pacing barefoot outside, talking to herself and behaving erratically. Her sister Stacey wanted to have her evaluated and hospitalized and contacted police for assistance, something the family said it had done numerous times previously without a violent outcome.
Importantly, Stacey said she deliberately did not call 911 because she did not regard the situation as an emergency. She removed Stephanie's two young children from the house before police arrived. Her sister Deanna, Deanna's boyfriend and their 13-year-old son remained inside.
The family's later federal lawsuit and public statements add a significant dispute over how police came to classify the call as involving a suicidal person. The family alleges that Officer Domenic Montano advised them to report Stephanie as suicidal in order to facilitate getting her involuntarily hospitalized, even though, according to the family, she was not suicidal and had not threatened herself or anyone else. The Essex District Attorney's later review nevertheless described police as responding to reports that Gerardi was making suicidal statements.
At approximately 4:32 p.m., Saugus police arrived at the house. Sean Murphy and David Harris entered the residence. Another officer positioned himself toward the rear of the home.
According to Deanna Gerardi, Stephanie initially greeted the officers peacefully. She approached them, asked how they were doing and told one officer that he was good-looking. She then asked whether she could give him a hug.
Murphy declined and told her to keep her distance. Deanna later said that Stephanie's demeanor changed after that interaction. Stephanie went into the kitchen and picked up a large knife.
The Essex District Attorney subsequently concluded that Gerardi advanced rapidly toward Murphy and Harris with the knife raised over her head. Gerardi's sisters disputed the characterization that she was “brandishing” the knife and maintained that she did not wave it around or threaten the officers.
Murphy fired his service weapon three times. Gerardi was struck in the head and torso and collapsed inside the house. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The encounter unfolded extremely quickly. Gerardi's sister Deanna was close enough to the shooting that she heard the spent cartridge casings hit the floor. She later described seeing Stephanie face-down in blood immediately after Murphy fired.
Deanna also said her boyfriend became distraught after witnessing the shooting and that police pointed weapons at him and ordered him to the floor. Police subsequently ordered the family from the residence, requiring them, according to Deanna, to step past Stephanie's body as they left.
The Essex State Police Detective Unit investigated Murphy's shooting under the direction of the Essex District Attorney's Office. Investigators reviewed the circumstances of the family's call, the officers' response and the shooting.
On 08/16/2022, more than a year after Gerardi's death, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett announced that Murphy would not face criminal charges. The DA concluded that Gerardi had advanced toward the officers with a large kitchen knife raised overhead and that Murphy reasonably believed she presented an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death. The prosecutor therefore found Murphy's use of deadly force legally justified.
The family's criticism went beyond the instant in which Murphy fired. Gerardi's sisters argued that police knew before entering the house that they were dealing with a woman experiencing a psychiatric crisis, had previously helped the family obtain psychiatric treatment for her, and should have approached the encounter as a behavioral-health intervention rather than allowing it to escalate into a deadly confrontation.
Gerardi's death subsequently became part of a broader Massachusetts debate about police responses to people experiencing mental-health crises. A 2023 Boston Globe investigation into police shootings of mentally ill and suicidal people revisited Gerardi's case and emphasized how a call specifically intended to obtain psychiatric help became a fatal police encounter.
Gerardi was the mother of two children, ages seven and eight when she was killed. Her family said that despite her long struggle with mental illness, she was deeply attached to her children and could thrive when her illness was controlled. Her sisters had helped care for her after their parents died in 2014 and 2017.
The case took a major new turn on 08/12/2024, when Stephanie's estate, represented by her sister Stacey Gerardi, together with Deanna Gerardi and Stephanie's two minor children, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The defendants include Sean Murphy, David Harris, Domenic Montano, Saugus Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli, the Saugus Police Department and the Town of Saugus.
The lawsuit, Gerardi et al. v. Murphy et al., Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-12072, alleges violations of Stephanie's constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. §1983 as well as violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act. The plaintiffs also brought negligent-infliction-of-emotional-distress claims arising from what family members witnessed inside the house.
The family alleges that police failed to properly de-escalate an encounter with a person whose serious psychiatric disability was known before officers arrived. They contend that police conduct escalated rather than stabilized the situation and challenge the adequacy of Saugus Police Department training and supervision concerning encounters with people experiencing mental-health crises.
The lawsuit remained active in federal court in 2026. On 01/07/2026, Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal issued an order in an ongoing discovery dispute concerning psychotherapy records sought by the defendants. The court's order confirms that the litigation had proceeded into substantive discovery rather than being dismissed at its preliminary stages.
The Gerardi family also renewed its public campaign over Stephanie's death in 2025, seeking changes to the way Saugus police handle behavioral-health emergencies. The family specifically argues that people asking police for psychiatric assistance should not face the risk that an intervention intended to obtain medical care will become a deadly police encounter.
OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Sean Murphy was the Saugus police officer who fired all three shots that killed Gerardi. The Essex District Attorney declined to prosecute him in August 2022, finding his gunfire legally justified. Murphy remained with the Saugus Police Department and is currently listed by the department as a detective.
Murphy has subsequently become a defendant in two separate federal civil-rights cases arising from incidents involving Saugus police. In addition to the Gerardi family's pending lawsuit, Murphy was named in a 2024 lawsuit arising from a fatal 2021 police pursuit that killed 19-year-old nursing student Ashley Forward.
In that separate case, Forward's mother sued Murphy, Saugus Police Sergeant Michael Richards, the Town of Saugus and others. The complaint alleges that Murphy and Richards pursued an unarmed robbery suspect at increasingly high speed before the pursued vehicle collided with Forward's vehicle, killing her. The lawsuit represents allegations rather than an adjudicated finding of misconduct, but it places Murphy in another fatal Saugus police encounter occurring only about two months before he killed Gerardi.
David Harris entered the Gerardi home with Murphy and was present during the fatal confrontation. Harris did not fire his weapon. He is a defendant in the Gerardi family's federal civil-rights lawsuit. No separate reliably documented fatal police shooting or substantiated serious misconduct finding involving Harris was located.
Domenic Montano was also involved in the police response and is a defendant in the federal lawsuit. The Gerardi family specifically alleges that Montano advised relatives to characterize Stephanie as suicidal in order to facilitate involuntary psychiatric hospitalization even though, according to the family, she was not suicidal. Montano remained with Saugus police after Gerardi's death and was listed as an active candidate on the department's 2026 promotional eligibility list. No separate reliably documented fatal shooting or substantiated serious misconduct finding involving Montano was located.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.mass.gov/news/essex-da-investigating-fatal-officer-involved-shooting-in-saugus
https://itemlive.com/2022/08/16/saugus-officer-cleared-in-2021-fatal-shooting/
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/08/16/stephanie-gerardi-police-involved-shooting-saugus/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/08/16/metro/sisters-woman-fatally-shot-by-saugus-police-say-officers-did-not-have-kill-her/
https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/08/24/police-mental-health-calls-saugus-shooting
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/03/metro/are-you-guys-going-shoot-me-police-encounters-with-mentally-ill-people-increasingly-turn-deadly/
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/stephanie-gerardi-saugus-police-shooting-alfred-road/
https://whdh.com/news/family-friends-question-fatal-police-shooting-of-saugus-mother/
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/das-office-no-charges-for-officer-who-fatally-shot-saugus-woman-in-2021/2809104/
https://www.wcvb.com/article/saugus-woman-killed-in-august-14-police-shooting-identified/37311071
https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/08/16/saugus-police-shooting-identity-released
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/massachusetts/madce/1%3A2024cv12072/273955
https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/massachusetts/madce/1%3A2024cv12072/273955/44
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-mad-1_24-cv-12072/pdf/USCOURTS-mad-1_24-cv-12072-0.pdf
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/massachusetts/madce/1%3A2024cv12311/274963
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/11/metro/mother-of-woman-19-killed-in-2021-crash-involving-police-pursuit-of-suspect-in-saugus-sues-town-cops/
https://sauguspd.com/contact-us/
https://www.change.org/p/save-lives-change-how-the-saugus-police-department-responds-to-mental-health-emergencies