Janet Sanders Retired

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders sentenced a man who opened fire on two Boston police officers to roughly half the prison time prosecutors asked for — after telling him, on the record, that she knew she was "taking a chance" on him despite warnings that he was dangerous.

In May 2020, Tyler Brown emptied 13 rounds from a .40-caliber Glock at two Boston Police officers in the city's South End. He later pleaded guilty to armed assault with intent to murder and related firearms counts. He was not a first-time offender: he carried a 1994 armed-robbery conviction and, at the time of the shooting, was on probation for a 2014 conviction for assault and battery with a knife. The Suffolk County District Attorney's office recommended a state prison sentence of 10 to 12 years.

In 2021, Judge Sanders instead sentenced Brown to five-to-six years in prison plus three years of probation — a term made possible in part because a 2009 drug conviction that had triggered a mandatory sentencing enhancement had by then been vacated amid the state's Hinton drug-lab scandal. How far below the prosecution's request to go, though, was hers to decide.

Addressing Brown directly at sentencing, she said: "When people stand up, experienced police officers and probation officers, and they tell me this guy is a danger to the community ... I can't look into a crystal ball and figure out what's going to happen once you get out." She added, "I do realize that I'm taking a chance on you," and imposed the lighter term. Brown was released on parole in May 2025, after roughly three and a half years.

The decision drew renewed public scrutiny in 2026, after Brown was again at the center of a shooting — the Cambridge Memorial Drive rampage that critically injured two people and brought his 2020 record back into the news. Asked about her 2021 sentence, Sanders — who has since retired from the bench and now works in mediation — told the Boston 25 News investigative team that she had "no memory" of the case.