When cops tracked down an acupuncturist accused of threatening his neighbors while dressed in a helmet and bulletproof vest, they found a pistol, a tactical rifle, and 1,000 rounds of ammunition in the back of his Prius, according to police.
The 43-year-old man was arrested for threatening and breach of peace.
It’s the second time this month that a cops have arrested a man for questionable behavior with legally permitted guns. The first incident, when a local lawyer brought a loaded pistol to a showing of the latest Batman movie, prompted the mayor to call for restrictions on carrying legal guns in public places.
Here’s what happened with the acupuncturist, according to police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman:
At 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Officer Joshua Smereczynsky responded to Lilac Street in Newhallville, where a woman had reported that a man had threatened her. She told cops a man in a bulletproof vest and helmet had chased kids onto a porch. “He’d walked briskly toward them while reaching into his waistband as if he was grabbing a gun,” Hartman said. “The woman told the Officer that after chasing the kids, the same man had pulled up in his car, stared at her and ran his finger across his throat before driving off.”
Another witness described an earlier incident involving the man. “She said he’d been similarly clad and yelled ‘You point a gun at me, I’m going to shoot you,’” Hartman said. “The witness said he appeared to be yelling this to no one in particular.”
Officer Smereczynsky sent out a radio broadcast with a description of the man. A Yale cop heard it and arranged to meet Smereczynsky. He had acted as an interpreter in a case involving the man the previous day and knew his address, and that the man had guns and a pistol permit.
The two cops went to the man’s house on Lilac Street and were told he was not there. A sign in the window advertised acupuncture services and had the man’s name and phone number.
After 6 p.m., police returned and found the man home. They arrested him for breach of peace and threatening.
“Lying on the back seat of his Toyota Prius was a Mossberg 715T .22 caliber long rifle and 1,000 rounds of .22 ammunition,” Hartman said. “There was a loaded Norinco model 213 9X19mm handgun in the car’s rear hatchback as well.” Police also found a loaded Smith & Wesson handgun in the man’s Branford acupuncture office.
The man told cops he’d been wearing the bulletproof vest for a week after people in the neighborhood pointed guns at him. Police confiscated the vest, helmet, guns, and ammunition “for safekeeping.”
In other police news, according to Hartman:
You Can Put Your Weed In There: At about 1 a.m. on Monday, Officers Christopher Fennessy and Christopher Lawrence responded to a drug complaint on First Street. A tenant told cops his neighbor refused to stop smoking weed.
Cops knocked on the door of the offending neighbor and when a woman answered, the smell of marijuana filled the air. The woman admitted she’d been smoking. She said she was alone, but cops heard a noise coming from behind a closet door.
“Officer Lawrence opened it and lit it up with his flashlight,” Hartman said. “He spotted a person’s leg sticking out from behind a false wall of the closet. He drew his gun and ordered the person to come out. The leg didn’t move but Officer Lawrence could hear noises from behind the wall.”
A 32-year-old man “emerged from the closet and into a pair of handcuffs,” Hartman said. Inside the crawl space he’d been hiding in, cops found a Nike book bag filled with weed, bolt-cutters, and a letter addressed to the woman who had answered the door. She took responsibility for the drugs. Police arrested her on drug charges and interfering. They charged the man with interfering as well. Police recovered 17 bags of marijuana.
Nightclub Brawl: At 1:25 a.m. on Monday, Officers Sean Sullivan and Gene Trotman responded to a report of a large fight at Pulse Nightclub on Chapel Street. The found a large group, with some people holding back a woman who was trying to confront a bouncer while yelling obscenities. Cops arrested her on a charge of disorderly conduct.
The melee continued, with another man being restrained by other club-goers. He refused to answer questions and wouldn’t leave the area. He kept returning to confront the nightclub staff. Cops arrested him for disorderly conduct. He fought as he was being arrested and then kicked out the window of the police cruiser cops put him into.
Cops removed him from the car and he screamed obscenities at them while trying to kick and spit at them. Police called an ambulance when the man tried to hurt himself.
EMTs arrived and restrained the man on a stretcher. Inside an ambulance, he spat at the ambulance attendant and EMTs placed a “spit bag” over his head. Later, restrained to a bed in the hospital, the man “continued his rage” and had to be separated from other emergency room patients.
At nearly 4 a.m., “after over two hours of continued yelling at hospital staff and trying to knock over RE equipment with his head,” the man spat on a nurse and an ER tech who came to help her, Hartman said. “The spit bag was reapplied.”
Cops charged the man with three counts of assault on police and emergency medical staff, along with criminal mischief for smashing the cruiser window and bending the door frame.
For block-by-block year-to-date crime info, check the Independent’s crime map.
Exactly how is a .22 rifle "tactical?" Oh yeah, because it looks like an AR-15 pattern rifle, and Mossberg named it "Tactical." More skeptical journalism, and less Madison Ave hype, please, NHI.
...