Hopkinton

Driver in deadly Hopkinton road rage incident arraigned; brawl at court

Ryan Sweatt was originally charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, operating to endanger and a marked lanes violation in connection with the incident

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Emotions ran high Tuesday at a Framingham courthouse, where a man is facing murder charges in a road rage incident that left a woman dead.

A man accused of intentionally hitting a woman with his car during a road rage incident in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, was arraigned on a murder charge Tuesday.

The room in Framingham District Court where Ryan Sweatt, a 36-year-old from Milford, was arraigned was packed, and tensions boiled over in the hallway outside. The families of Sweatt and the woman who died, Destini Decoff, fought and had to be separated.

The altercation erupted after an extended exchange of words in the hallway. One person appeared to be bleeding from the neck after the brawl.

The incident occurred on April 4 on Hayden Rowe Street near Cornell's Irish Pub, Hopkinton police said. Decoff, 26, died from her injuries two days later.

Sweatt was originally charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, operating to endanger and a marked lanes violation in connection with the incident.

He reportedly told police a group of people in a car behind him got out at the intersection to Granite and Hayden Rowe streets and threatened to kill him, with one allegedly pulling out a knife.

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