A Massachusetts State Police robot dog was shot multiple times by an armed suspect during a tense standoff with cops earlier this month, according to police.
Troops from the agency’s bomb squad rushed to a home in Barnstable on Cape Cod on March 6 to assist SWAT and local police who had responded to a report of a man who was allegedly holding his mother hostage with a knife.
The mother and another female resident were able to lock themselves in a different part of the residence, as the suspect, identified by Barnstable Police as 30-year-old Justin Moreira, barricaded himself inside and fired a rifle at officers.
The department’s mental health clinician tried to convince Moreira to come out of the home peacefully, but he refused and continued to periodically fire at officers.
A four-legged robot dog, nicknamed “Roscoe,” was deployed to look for the suspect inside the home, MSP said in a press release Wednesday. The robot, operated remotely by troopers, spotted Moreira when he “suddenly appeared from a bedroom armed with a rifle.”
Moreira knocked Roscoe over and began to climb a set of stairs out of the bedroom, police said. But the robot, which is able to right-itself, continued to pursue the man.
“When the suspect realized, with apparent surprise, that Roscoe was behind him on the stairs, he again knocked the robot over and then raised his rifle in Roscoe’s direction,” police said. “The robot suddenly lost communications.”
Police later learned that Roscoe had been shot three times by the suspect and had been rendered inoperable. After shooting Roscoe, Moreira allegedly shot at a second robot outside the home’s sliding door, but hit an above-ground pool in the backyard instead.
After seven hours of negotiations, he still refused to come outside even after the SWAT team filled the house with pepper spray. He was eventually taken into custody without injury.
Moreira was charged with several counts of attempted murder as well as additional firearms charges, according to police.
“The incident provided a stark example of the benefits of mobile platforms capable of opening doors and ascending stairs in tactical missions involving armed suspects,” state police wrote in the news release.
Using the robot, police said, “may have prevented a police officer from being involved in an exchange of gunfire.”
State police brought Roscoe to manufacturer Boston Dynamics for a damage assessment. The company said it wants to hold onto the robot for research and police are looking to replace it.
