A 32-year-old Hyde Park man was sentenced Tuesday to at least 16 years in state prison for opening fire on Boston police officers during a foot chase in Roxbury's Nubian Square last September, striking one officer in the arm just steps from the department's own District B-2 headquarters. Daiquan Rice was on parole for prior firearm offenses at the time of the shooting, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mark Hallal handed down 12 to 13 years in state prison for assault and battery with a firearm, followed by a consecutive four to five years for illegal firearm possession, plus two years of probation, according to MassLive. A jury found Rice guilty of assault and battery with a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, and carrying a loaded firearm without a license, per the same outlet's reporting on the case.
The confrontation began just before 12:45 a.m. on September 12, 2025, when District B-2 officers on a quality-of-life patrol in Nubian Square spotted Rice smoking alone inside General Edward O. Gourdin African American Veterans Memorial Park, despite posted signs barring entry after dusk and prohibiting smoking, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. The park sits directly across Washington Street from the District B-2 precinct itself, according to Boston 25 News.
A Chase Through Roxbury Streets Ends in Gunfire
When officers approached, Rice ran, fleeing down Washington Street and turning onto Archer Terrace toward Kenilworth Street before firing at the pursuing officers with a handgun fitted with an extended magazine holding more than 10 rounds, the district attorney's office said. Police returned fire and struck Rice, then took him into custody. Beyond the officer shot in the arm, three other Boston Police officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the pursuit and required medical evaluation, according to CBS News Boston's coverage of the incident.
Officers recovered two plastic bags of crack cocaine that fell from Rice's pocket during the arrest, which initially led to a separate charge of possession with intent to distribute a Class B drug, per CBS News Boston. Following the incident, Mayor Michelle Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox visited the wounded officer at the hospital, with Cox remarking that authorities were fortunate no lives were lost given how many illegal firearms remain on Boston's streets.
A Long Record of Gun Violence in the Same Neighborhood
Rice's history with firearms in the Roxbury and Mission Hill area stretches back nearly a decade. In December 2017, Boston police arrested then-23-year-old Rice alongside his father for a double shooting on Mission Hill, and investigators identified him at the time as a suspect in three separate non-fatal shootings in Roxbury within a single month, according to the Mission Hill Gazette. That case eventually led to a seven-to-10-year Suffolk Superior Court sentence for firearm offenses, and Rice was still on probation and parole from that conviction when he shot the officer last September, the district attorney's office said.
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265, Section 15G, assault and battery with a firearm is a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of three years in state prison, according to the Law Office of Matthew Peterson. The consecutive sentence Judge Hallal imposed, stacking more than a decade on the assault charge with additional years for the firearm possession count, goes well beyond that statutory floor — a structure prosecutors and city officials have pointed to as necessary for repeat offenders caught with high-capacity magazines while under court supervision.
