Around New England
Cop Runs To Stop Guy Firing Gun In Air; Neighbors Throw Stuff At Cop
July 18, 2019
A police officer who ran to disarm and arrest a man who was firing his gun into the air in a crowded downtown got jeered at and had things thrown at him, police said.
Officer Dustin Summers, a police officer in Holyoke, Massachusetts, saw a 30-year-old man shooting a .40-caliber semiautomatic Smith & Wesson handgun during a recent mid-morning,
The man had fired five rounds and had only one bullet left in the chamber by the time Summers got there and stopped him, a Holyoke police spokesman said.
Firing a gun into the air is illegal in most places in the United States because occasionally someone is killed by a falling bullet fired into the air from somewhere nearby.
But in Holyoke, people in the area took the shooter’s side. They “began jeering and taunting detectives and officers who arrived to assist,” Holyoke Police Lieutenant James Albert said, according to MassLive.com.
They didn’t stop at words.
“A potted plant and other items were thrown down at the officers from three stories above nearly striking them,” Albert said, according to MassLive.com.
The neighborhood is known for drugs, violence, and gangs.
During a search, police said, they found heroin on the shooter.
The shooter was charged with possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a gun with a defaced serial number, possession of ammunition without a permit, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, and possession of heroin, police said.
The incident occurred at about 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 12.
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