Crime
The police officer was hospitalized for neck and back pain following the incident, prosecutors say.
A Boston man was sentenced Tuesday for a 2025 shoplifting incident at South Bay Mall that prosecutors say escalated into a violent confrontation in which he slammed a police officer’s head into a cruiser windshield.
Steven Zamot, 34, pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court and was sentenced to three to four-and-a-half years in state prison on charges of unarmed carjacking, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and larceny from a building, according to a statement from Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office.
Zamot also received a concurrent two-year sentence for assault and battery on a police officer, prosecutors said.
According to authorities, Zamot stole $40 worth of merchandise from the T.J. Maxx in the South Bay Mall on Sept. 25, 2025. Prosecutors said he had previously been barred from the store.
As he left the T.J. Maxx, Zamot told loss prevention employees, “Call the cops. I’ll just get released,” according to Hayden’s office.
When Boston police arrived, officers observed the stolen merchandise in Zamot’s possession and attempted to detain him. Prosecutors said Zamot punched one officer, then jumped into her marked cruiser.
Authorities said Zamot attempted to operate the cruiser and continued to assault the officer by slamming her head against the cruiser’s windshield. The officer was taken to a local hospital for neck and back pain, according to prosecutors.
After officers removed him from the cruiser, Zamot fled on foot but was arrested a short distance away near New Market station, Hayden’s office said.
“This case represents an extreme example of a retail-based crime turning violent, and incarceration is appropriate,” Hayden said in the statement. “But while a sentence is justified here, we are committed to using non-incarceration approaches whenever appropriate to address the root causes of why people commit retail-based crimes.”
According to prosecutors, Zamot has a criminal record dating to 2009 that spans 20 pages. Hayden’s office did not provide details about his prior charges.
“I have known Steven to be a gentleman,” Tanvi Verma, Zamot’s defense attorney, said in a statement to Boston.com. “As with anyone, there is so much more to him than any charge can begin to encapsulate.”
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