Brawl outside courtroom arraignment of man charged with murder over 'road rage incident' where he allegedly struck woman head-on and sent her hurtling through the air outside pub

Main image: Cornell’s Irish Pub in Hopkinton, Mass. (Google Maps). Inset: Destini Decoff, smiling, in a photograph (Facebook).

A Massachusetts man who allegedly went out of his way to hit a young woman with his car during an “apparent road rage incident” earlier this month has now been charged with her murder.

During Tuesday courtroom proceedings in the case, further violence erupted.

Destini Decoff , 26, was hit by a car so hard that her jacket was knocked off her body and landed several feet away, one witness said. Days later, she succumbed to her wounds.

Now, Ryan Sweatt, 36, faces one charge of murder in addition to previous charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, operating to endanger, and a marked lanes violation, according to a press release issued by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office and Hopkinton Police on Monday.

The defendant was arraigned on the homicide charge in Framingham District Court on Tuesday, according to the press release.

During Sweatt’s arraignment, family members of the victim and the accused got into a brawl in a hallway outside the courtroom, had to be separated, and at least one person was left bleeding from the neck, according to Boston-based NBC affiliate WBTS .

The deadly incident occurred on April 4, just outside of a pub on Route 85 in Hopkinton, a medium-sized town 25 miles west of Boston.

Brett Martin was at Cornell’s Irish Pub on the night in question — he told CBS News he heard the screech of a car and ran outside to see the commotion when he saw Decoff hurtling through the air.

“We could tell there was a little road rage going on,” Martin told the local, Boston-based CBS affiliate. “I saw her midair kind of coming down towards the street … her jacket must’ve been 20 feet away from her. However she got hit, those clothes flew off.”

The apparent road rage incident began with Sweatt driving behind the car Decoff was in. Versions differ as to what happened next.

Sweatt told police the driver of the car in front slammed on the brakes, then four people got out of the car, surrounded his Honda Civic, and began threatening his life — one of them brandishing a knife, according to CBS News and Boston-based ABC affiliate WCVB .

“They’re trying to kill me,” Sweatt told a police officer immediately after the woman was hit. An officer said the defendant pointed back toward a group of five people: four standing over a woman in a pool of blood, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.

The occupants of the other car say Sweatt was riding their bumper so they pulled over, according to the victim’s mother , Tracy Decoff, on Facebook. At some point, Decoff and others got out of their car.

Then, at some point, with the group from the other car out on the road, Decoff was hit. Her friends said the blow was intentional.

Authorities and witnesses say Sweatt had several opportunities to extricate himself from whatever the situation was without violence.

During his initial arraignment, a prosecutor told a Framingham judge the defendant drove away once, then turned around and drove toward the group from the other car — passing them by before making a second U-turn and then slamming directly into Decoff.

“He turned around multiple times, and he could have just kept going,” Martin told CBS News. “He chose to turn around. He knew what he was doing when he went towards that girl.”

The impact occurred “at a high rate of speed,” prosecutors say.

Surveillance footage corroborated that version of events, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Pavan Nagavelli reportedly told the court.

A GoFundMe for the victim’s family tersely recounts the tragedy.

“On April 6th, Destini was tragically taken from us after being intentionally struck by a vehicle,” the fundraiser reads. “Her family is asking for help with the cost of her final arrangements. Anything you can donate would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.”

According to the courtroom report by WCVB, the defendant appeared to register surprise at the extent of the victim’s injuries.

In the defendant’s latest Facebook profile post , from March 2023, he appeared to struggle with mental health issues.

“Honestly what is so wrong about me??” Sweatt wrote. “Clearly something is wrong but I can’t see it. I can’t fix what I don’t know is broken.”

He is being held without bail.

The post Brawl outside courtroom arraignment of man charged with murder over ‘road rage incident’ where he allegedly struck woman head-on and sent her hurtling through the air outside pub first appeared on Law & Crime .