Police say Johnston man pulled shotgun on officer
11:58 AM Tue, Jun 09, 2009 | Permalink
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JOHNSTON, RI. - - A 49-year-old man faces several charges including felony assault after he pulled a shotgun on one of two officers who went to his house at Milner Field Road to pick him up on an arrest warrant and to talk to him about harassing phone calls, according to the police. Officers Dennis Peacock and John DeAngelis went to talk to Robert J. Desrosiers of 14 Milner Field Rd. Monday at 9 a.m. about a complaint of harassing phone calls lodged by his ex-wife Lori Johnson, according to Major Ralph Bubar of the Johnston Police. Bubar said Desrosiers was wanted on a District Court warrant for failure to appear in court after an April 23 incident in which he is alleged to have struck another car with his vehicle and left the scene. Derosiers reached among tools leaning against the wall of the tool shed and pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun from behind the tools, Bubar said. Without turning around he lifted the barrel of the shotgun and pointed it at Peacock's face as he was trying to cuff Desrosiers, Bubar said. Peacock grabbed Desrosiers and he and DeAngelis wrestled him to the ground, Bubar said. He said that Desrosier tried to pull the trigger of the shotgun as he struggled with the two officers. They wrestled the shotgun out of his hands and handcuffed him. Bubar said the shotgun was loaded. Peacock received minor injuries during the struggle, Bubar said. He and DeAngelis had a scheduled day off today but Bubar said they expected back to work. Derosiers was charged with felony assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and domestic crank calls. He was arraigned Monday night at police headquarters and was remanded to the Adult Correctional Institutions after he could not come up with 25,000 surety bail. He has a bail review in Kent County District Court Tuesday. Bubar said that Desrosiers had been completely calm with the police until he pulled the shotgun. "The quick thinking of the officers averted a very tragic situation. If that man was been able to fire that shotgun in that enclosed shed there would have been serious injuries to the officers," Bubar said. 
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Still think they should cut police officer's benefits? I'm glad the officers' were able to react so quickly and that they are okay.
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WOW - I'm glad to read those officers are okay. A routine call could have been an absolute tragedy... you never know what seemingly normal people will end up doing. Thanks for putting your lives on the line, officers.
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HELL NO, I say.....Give them all a raise,let me ask all of you,would any of you confront that nut?
Me either. So I say, THANK YOU to all officers who put their lives on the line everyday.
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he walks =first it was a shotgun then it was a hand gun===A GUN IS ONLY AS GOOD OR AS BAD AS THE PERSON ITS HANDS ARE IN
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I am very happy the officers are safe and sound. That is an excellent testament to their training and professional bearing.
No one has said that firefighters and police officers don’t perform dangerous and vital jobs. There are people everywhere who owe their lives to those brave men and women. But, that has nothing to do with pay or benefits. There are other professions as dangerous and vital to our society that have seen reduced wages and benefits. I think it is a mistake to exclude one class of citizens from the ravages of our current economic situation simply because of their profession.
We all benefit when the economy is good. We all need to sacrifice when the economy is bad. No one should be exempt from that.
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The officers acted quickly and were able to avoid shooting the man. Kudos to them. But lets not use this isolated incident as justification for their salary and benefits. If we were to use that logic, then timber cutters would be making $500K+. Report after report show more timber cutters are killed in the line of duty than any other profession (perhaps with the exception of military members).
In fact, being a police officer isn't even on the top 10 list of most dangerous jobs put out by the BLS. In fact, according to statistics: Timber cutters, fishers, pilots, structural metal workers, drivers, roofers, electrical power installers, farm occupations, construct laborers, and truck drivers all have more dangerous jobs than cops.
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A nice turn of events for the ex-wife. This guy should be locked up for a very long time and his ex will finally be able to breath without worrying that he was going to come after her. Good job, officers.
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We either pay officers to stop the nonsense out there or it was trickle down to the kids in schools. Public safety first...time to appreciate all they do every day
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I am not a police officer, nor would I ever want to be. They put their lives on the line every day and shpuld be treated as such.
Thank God both officers are OK.
Imagine, one or maybe both of these policemen could have been seriously injured or killed over prank phone calls.....carzy !
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The guy's lucky that I wasn't one of the cops who he pointed that shot-gun at. I wonder if was actually trying to commit "suicide by cop"? It's good that no one was injured. Nice job by the cops.
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In the top ten most dangerous jobs listed above by Robert, All are very dangerous and I respect anyone doing a job but none of them involve someone attempting to kill you like in this case.
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I'm sorry, but how is this a big deal? Don't you feel any sympathy for police officers who face real struggles and real life-threatening situations? We're not dealing with a murderer or anything here. Think about that man's family. This is surely not the whole truth.
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