In the early hours of October 21, 2004, after the
Boston Red Sox defeated the
New York Yankees at
Yankee Stadium in Game 7 of the
2004 American League Championship Series, the
Boston Police Department took action around
Fenway Park to control a crowd that had gathered, some of whom were throwing bottles at the police. Approximately 90 minutes after the game ended, officer Rochefort Milien shot Snelgrove with an
FN 303 blunt
trauma /
pepper spray projectile. Snelgrove, who was not acting in an unruly manner, was not Milien's intended target; he had fired at a different person in the crowd. The crowd-control projectile hit Snelgrove in the eye, causing her to bleed heavily. Ambulances were blocked by the excessive crowds, which still refused to clear the area, preventing prompt medical attention from arriving from the dense medical area only a half-mile (0.8 km) away.
Snelgrove died at 12:50 p.m.
EDT at
Brigham and Women's Hospital in
Boston, Massachusetts, about 11 hours after being shot. According to the
autopsy, the pellet opened a three-quarter-inch (1.9 cm) hole in the bone behind the eye, broke into nine pieces, and damaged the right side of her brain.
