BOSTON — The man accused of killing one and injuring 19 more in a grisly scene when his car smashed through a Hingham Apple store will be held on $100,000 bail as he claims this was just a ghastly accident.
Bradley Rein, 53, stood in Hingham District Court on Tuesday in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, his jaw quietly working as he listened to a Plymouth County prosecutor run down what happened about 24 hours earlier.
Judge Heather Bradley sided with the prosecution, ordering $100,000 bail and forbidding him from driving as the case moves forward. The defense had asked for $20,000 and said he could afford $50,000.
That’s when police responded to the swanky Derby Street shopping plaza as callers reported that an SUV had just smashed through the front windows of the Apple store there at 10:45 a.m., leaving carnage in its wake.
In total, prosecutors said, there were 20 victims, many badly injured. One, 65-year-old Kevin Bradley of New Jersey, died from his wounds.
“We have a very serious matter,” Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters after the arraignment in Hingham. “We have one fatality — numerous people who are still in the hospital right now suffering grievous and traumatic injuries.”
Rein is pleading not guilty to the charge of reckless motor-vehicle homicide, and his lawyer said this is just an “unfortunate accident.”
Prosecutors said he blew a clean Breathalyzer test a few hours after the crash at 1:40 p.m., with no alcohol detected in his system. He also provided his phone to the police.
“This was just an unfortunate accident,” Alison King, the defense attorney appointed to argue his initial bail. She said his sneaker-clad foot got “stuck between the accelerator and the side” and he couldn’t make the SUV stop accelerating. He told police his foot had gotten similarly stuck once on the highway previously
Asked about that, Cruz said, “We’ll go forward with whatever it takes to hold the right people accountable for their actions.”
The judge said it appears Rein can afford his own attorney, so now that the the bail matter is done, he’ll have to get his own.
Rein, who lives nearby, told police he was at Derby Street looking to get new glasses. The prosecutor said he has no criminal record in Massachusetts, and was charged once with DUI in Vermont in 2020, but that was expunged.
On Monday morning, according to witnesses and cameras, Rein’s 2019 Toyota 4Runner “crashed into the front of the Apple store and proceeded through the retail section before coming to its final resting point in the left rear corner of the Apple store,” police wrote.
What police described as a “gaping hole” in the front glass was still visible on Tuesday.
The rear wall “sustained severe damage,” but that was nothing compared to the human toll, including the dead man, a contractor who was struck directly. A camera, police wrote, showed what appears to be the SUV traveling at a “high rate of speed down the travel lane and directly into the Apple Store.”
Apple released a statement saying it was “devastated by the shocking events at Apple Derby Street today and the tragic loss of a professional who was onsite supporting recent construction at the store.”
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