AYER — At about 3:10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, Officers George Fitcher and Casey Scott of the Ayer Police Department responded to an apartment building on Main Street following a loud music complaint.
(The account and quotations in this article were taken from Officer Scott’s Statement of Facts.)
The complainant said that after he sent a text message asking for the music to be turned down, his neighbor, Bryan King, refused and instead suggested they meet in the hallway for a “knife fight.”
Bryan C. King, 43, is a resident of 17 Main Street, Apt. 4, in Ayer.
When police arrived on scene, music was blaring from King’s apartment.
“We arrived and could hear extremely loud music coming from apartment 4,” Officer Scott said.
Officer Scott knocked on King’s apartment door with no response.
“After several attempts at knocking on the door, I thought I heard a separate door from around a hallway open and close,” Officer Scott said.
When Officer Scott began walking toward the hallway to check for another entrance to the apartment, he encountered a “visibly intoxicated” white male – later identified as Bryan King – advancing toward him aggressively in a shooting stance with a gun pointed in his direction.
“I saw a handgun in his hands and it was pointing directly at me which I perceived as an imminent deadly threat,” Officer Scott said. “I quickly retreated around the corner to take cover around a wall and drew my firearm. As I was doing this, I yelled ‘oh f$ck he’s got a gun.’ I immediately began giving loud verbal commands to Bryan, ‘Police, drop the f$ck*ng gun’ and ‘get on the f$ck*ng ground.’ I could hear Bryan saying, ‘it’s just a BB gun.’ I ordered Bryan to drop the gun and get on the ground. As I made my way back around the corner to where Bryan was, I pointed my firearm at him still giving him verbal commands. Bryan was lying face down with his hands out on the ground above his head. I saw a black and silver handgun on the ground next to Bryan’s right side.”
Officer Scott and Officer Fitcher then approached King with their firearms drawn and ordered him not to move or touch the gun. Officer Scott kicked the gun away from King and apprehended him.
King was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace.
The gun King had in his possession was later determined to be a BB gun.
King was arraigned in Ayer District Court on Jan. 22, 2024, the day he was arrested.
Following his arraignment, he was released on his own personal recognizance under the condition that he refrain from “destructive devices, shotguns, BB guns, and Airsoft Weapons,” avoid the neighbor who made the noise complaint against him, refrain from alcohol, and submit to remote alcohol breath testing three times a day with a SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor).
A SCRAM is a device worn around the ankle. SCRAM bracelets analyze a person’s sweat for the presence of alcohol, allowing for continuous, 24/7 monitoring.
King is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 22, 2024 for a pretrial hearing.
Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story was from January, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to get the court documents for the incident. FOIAs are time consuming.
