'Punks' with BB gun target man with autism, Uxbridge police cruiser

UXBRIDGE, Mass. — An investigation is underway in Uxbridge where both a police cruiser and man were targeted with a BB gun.

Less than 12 hours after the victim, Matthew Conrad, was verbally berated and shot in his side with the BB gun, police said one of their officers was shot at while driving.

The shooter missed and a K9 was brought in to search for the person responsible, but no one was found.

Now police are trying to determine if the incidents are related.

“I just like doing the same thing as everyone else,” Conrad told Boston 25 News reporter Drew Karedes.

Conrad says he does a lot of walking around his community in Uxbridge and has never run into any problems -- until now.

“I’m feeling shaken,” he said.

“It’s devastating this boy has walked these streets since he got out of his school,” Lynn Conrad, Matthew’s mother, said.

She said her son’s autism has come with good days and bad days through the years, but she said she fears the three young men who confronted him about a mile from home have triggered a major setback.

“He said these kids kept driving by him and calling him something I couldn’t repeat,” Lynn Conrad said. “He said they came back three times. The fourth time they shot at him four times with the BB gun.”

One of those BB’s hit Matthew Conrad in his side, leaving him with a large welt.

His mother says the emotional trauma is much worse than the physical injury.

“He’s so happy, and it’s gone,” Lynn Conrad said. “I can’t get him out of the house. They just don’t realize what they’ve done to him.”

While she said Matthew’s five brothers are helping him heal, she believes the best remedy to move forward is justice.

“I think they’re punks who want to bully people and this is their way of having fun, and it’s not fun,” Lynn Conrad said.

Cox Media Group