50 Years Later, Retired Mass. Police Officer Recounts Attack, Search for Justice

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — On the night of June 16, 1975, Boston television newscasts incorrectly reported that police officer Dana Owen had been shot and killed.

Nearly 50 years later and now retired from the Massachusetts State Police, Owen, of North Andover, recounts the harrowing experience at speaking events. He was shot twice in the head and survived, but it took years to bring his attackers to justice.

When he speaks he is often accompanied by Sandy Owen, his high school sweetheart and wife of 55 years, who rushed to her husband’s bedside that night before his lifesaving, emergency brain surgery at Winchester Hospital.

Ten years ago, Owen self-published “Shotgunned,” a book about the “long ordeal of a wounded cop seeking justice.”

He says writing the book, which took roughly six years, was cathartic. Even a decade later, he’s still sought after for book signings along with the speaking events, especially from readers interested in law enforcement and true crime topics.

A television series about “Shotgunned” could also be in the works.

“I don’t believe in this ‘closure’ stuff. But writing the book definitely felt good,” he says.

Owen served as a police officer for 27 years in Massachusetts, retiring in 1997 as the sergeant armorer for the State Police. He served with the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission Police Department from 1970 to 1992 and then the State Police after several state law enforcement agencies merged.

He is the recipient of several police citations, including the Medal of Valor, the highest honor awarded.

Telling his story

“Shotgunned” recounts how Owen and his then- law enforcement partner, Bob Power, pursued a hijacked postal truck, a tractor-trailer unit containing $100,000, from downtown Boston to Winchester. Owen was 27 at the time and the father of two girls — the youngest of whom celebrated her fourth birthday that very day.

“After I was shot, not once — but twice — the vehicle pursuit ended but not my determination to catch the bad guys who tried to kill me,” Owen says.

Seven men were thought to be involved in the heist and shooting. Eventually, five were convicted. One was acquitted, and one died before being brought to trial.

The book opens with Owen and Power chasing the suspects into Winchester. The gangsters fired at Owen with a shotgun, a weapon that police officers fear because it feels like multiple people are shooting at you.

Owen suffered depressed and linear skull fractures and remembers doctors telling him the injuries were just millimeters away from being fatal. Still, he was back at work just six months later, assisting with the investigation of his case. Eleven years passed from the shooting to the final conviction.

Boston TV reporter Ron Gollobin, who covered breaking news about Owen’s shooting, and Athena Z. Yerganian helped Owen write his book.

Gollobin was the first reporter to whom Owen granted an interview after the shooting. Gollobin has described Owen as a natural storyteller and encouraged him to write the book.

‘To live it was unreal’

Sandy Owen contributed a chapter to “Shotgunned,” recalling the events of the night. While Dana had gone off to work for his evening police shift, Sandy was cleaning up from the birthday party. The girls were bathed and in pajamas upstairs when she got the call.

“Sandy, Dana wanted me to call you and tell you he was OK, but he had a little accident in the cruiser tonight and he’d like it if we came up and brought you down to the hospital,” Sandy recalls.

Sandy was a registered nurse, and she and her husband had previously agreed that she would get a phone call if he was hurt on duty. He did not want her to ever go through the trauma of a “home notification” by police officers, she writes.

After arriving at Winchester Hospital, she was amazed by how many police officers came to her husband’s side.

“Now I know on TV shows and in movies and novels, they all try to show and explain this blue brotherhood cops have, but believe me when I tell you, they don’t scratch the surface. To live it was unreal,” she writes.

“Cops stopped by that little break room — well over 100 of them,” she added. “They were from literally everywhere near and far, on duty and off, uniform and plain clothes, and had come to participate in a search for these shooters.”

She said she didn’t know 95 percent of them, but most spoke to her to offer support.

“I don’t think I have ever been exposed to so much emotional testosterone and adrenaline in my life, before or since,” she said.

“Shotgunned” has been praised by numerous authors and police officers, including Sgt. Richard “Dic” Donohue, who was wounded in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing shootout.

“It’s a great look into policing in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as what it’s like to be an injured police officer,” Donohue says. “Even though much of the story happened before I was born, there are many similarities to policing today, and the lessons and challenges we should still learn from.”

Former New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton has also weighed in, calling Owen’s story “a thrilling and enlightening account of courage and determination.”

“Shotgunned” can be purchased through Amazon.

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