Boston man sentenced for assaulting officer throughout South Bay shoplifting arrest

Crime

The police officer was hospitalized for neck and again ache following the incident, prosecutors say.

A Boston man was sentenced Tuesday for a 2025 shoplifting incident at South Bay Mall that prosecutors say escalated right into a violent confrontation by which he slammed a police officer’s head right into a cruiser windshield.

Steven Zamot, 34, pleaded responsible in Suffolk Superior Courtroom and was sentenced to a few to four-and-a-half years in state jail on prices of unarmed carjacking, assault and battery with a harmful weapon, and larceny from a constructing, in response to a assertion from Suffolk District Legal professional Kevin Hayden’s workplace.

Zamot additionally obtained a concurrent two-year sentence for assault and battery on a police officer, prosecutors mentioned.

In response to authorities, Zamot stole $40 price of merchandise from the T.J. Maxx within the South Bay Mall on Sept. 25, 2025. Prosecutors mentioned he had beforehand been barred from the shop.

As he left the T.J. Maxx, Zamot informed loss prevention staff, “Name the cops. I’ll simply get launched,” in response to Hayden’s workplace.

When Boston police arrived, officers noticed the stolen merchandise in Zamot’s possession and tried to detain him. Prosecutors mentioned Zamot punched one officer, then jumped into her marked cruiser.

Authorities mentioned Zamot tried to function the cruiser and continued to assault the officer by slamming her head in opposition to the cruiser’s windshield. The officer was taken to an area hospital for neck and again ache, in response to prosecutors.

After officers eliminated him from the cruiser, Zamot fled on foot however was arrested a brief distance away close to New Market station, Hayden’s workplace mentioned.

“This case represents an excessive instance of a retail-based crime turning violent, and incarceration is acceptable,” Hayden mentioned within the assertion. “However whereas a sentence is justified right here, we’re dedicated to utilizing non-incarceration approaches at any time when acceptable to handle the basis causes of why folks commit retail-based crimes.”

In response to prosecutors, Zamot has a felony file relationship to 2009 that spans 20 pages. Hayden’s workplace didn’t present particulars about his prior prices.

“I’ve recognized Steven to be a gentleman,” Tanvi Verma, Zamot’s protection lawyer, mentioned in a press release to Boston.com. “As with anybody, there may be a lot extra to him than any cost can start to encapsulate.”