LEOMINSTER — On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 4, 2026, Officer Caulin Salvi of the Leominster Police Department was dispatched to Home Depot on Commercial Road following a report of a woman walking in and out of traffic.
(The account and quotations in this article were sourced from the printed Personnel Narrative of Officer Caulin Salvi for the incident and do not reflect any political perspective or personal opinion of News Link Live, which is strictly a business entity.)
When he arrived on scene, Officer Salvi, who was still in his cruiser at the time, said MART Bus 4182, the Route 8 bus that serves the mall area was in front of his cruiser and also waiting to turn left.
“I observed a hooded figure walking on Commercial Road toward the intersection, and they appeared to be in the middle of the road and not on either side,” Officer Salvi said.
The bus began turning left, and Officer Salvi turned left as well, with a pickup truck positioned between his cruiser and the bus.
“As I turned left, I saw the female walk directly at the front of the bus without making any kind of hand gesture to indicate they wanted to board it, the bus instantaneously applied its brakes, and I activated my blue lights,” Officer Salvi said.
Officer Salvi said the woman appeared to have walked around the front of the bus as close as she could without brushing against it, still without making any indication that it was “some reckless attempt at boarding the bus.”
“I approached the female and she identified herself as Kristen Sawyer,” Officer Salvi said. “She appeared to be stumbling while she walked, she refused to remain stationary, and I could not determine if her balance was affected as well.”
According to police, Kristen Lynn Sawyer, 40, is a resident of Leominster, MA.
“Kristen smelled of beer, and I was unable to determine if it was from her clothing or on her breath,” Officer Salvi said. “I had to ask her twice to remain on the side of the road while I talked with her. We were currently taking up a majority of the lane.”
Officer Salvi said he explained to Sawyer why he had been called to the scene and reminded her that the center median of a road was not a safe place to walk.
“Kristen began arguing that because there were no sidewalks then she had nowhere else to walk, there are none on this part of Commercial Road, and given the amount of snow on the sides of the road, there was even less room than usual,” Officer Salvi said. “I attempted to reason with her about staying on the side of the road and using what was safer and available, when she tried to walk around the front of my cruiser and toward traffic. I told her to stop, and I reached out to grab her jacket before she walked into traffic again. Kristen tried to swat my arm away and I determined that her behavior was disorderly. Kristen began trying to pull away from me until I had obtained control of her hands and began cuffing her. Throughout the remainder of the call, Kristen was kept under control by Officer [Christian] Schwartz and myself; Kristen used colorful language and was verbally uncooperative which extended our presence in the middle of the road.”
At this time, Officer Salvi advised Sawyer she was under arrest for disorderly conduct.
Officer Salvi checked Sawyer’s Board of Probation record and found that it listed four prior guilty dispositions for disorderly conduct between 2010 and 2022. Two of the cases originated in Leominster District Court, one in Fitchburg District Court, and the earliest, from April 2010, originated in Ayer District Court.
Kristen Lynn Sawyer, 40, of Leominster, was charged with the following:
- Disorderly Conduct (Subsequent Offense)
- “[For] reckless behavior in the street causing a disturbance to traffic,” Officer Salvi explained.
Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story took place earlier this month, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to obtain the court documents. FOIAs are time-consuming.
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