By Milton J. Balencia
The Boston Globe
BOSTON — A State Police lieutenant was reassigned to desk duty and had his service weapon confiscated pending an investigation into reports that his 12-year-old son pointed the unloaded weapon at a neighborhood child and pulled the trigger.
Lieutenant Richard R. Bolduc was transferred from his assignment in Central Massachusetts to the barracks in Middleborough pending the investigation, said State Police spokesman Lieutenant Eric Anderson. He said State Police will monitor whether any criminal charges arise from police in Sandwich, where the incident occurred.
Anderson said Bolduc’s department-issued car was also confiscated. He would not comment further, citing a personnel matter and an internal investigation.
Sandwich Police Chief Michael Miller said that Bolduc’s son brought his father’s unloaded weapon to a neighbor’s house. Miller said the boy carried the weapon under his belt, pulled it out, and pulled the trigger to show it was real, but it did not fire. The gun was aimed at a 5-year-old girl. The children called police.
“All we know is that there is a group of kids at the house, and then this young man went over with a gun,” Miller said.
Bolduc’s son, whose name was not released, later showed an investigating officer an unlocked bureau where he said the gun was stored, according to Miller.
Miller said the incident was particularly unnerving because the weapon, a semiautomatic handgun, had the potential to have a bullet in its chamber even without a magazine attached.
Bolduc’s son was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a large-capacity firearm.
Copyright 2008 The Boston Globe