WESTFIELD – A homeless man is facing criminal charges after a rampage Sunday evening at a Southampton Road business.
City police report that they responded to a 9:48 p.m. call from a resident who reported a disturbance at Hometown Structures, a business dealing in sheds, gazebos and other outside structures.
Officer Thomas Cusack was the first officer to arrive and was followed closely by Officer Seth Florek who reports the caller had said that a person was “screaming and smashing sheds on the property.”
A witness described the suspect’s actions as “very violent”, Florek reports.
The officers found a person, later identified as Matthew J. Bricault, 26, of no fixed address in Easthampton, in the breakdown lane of Southampton Road, and he was immediately verbally abusive and belligerent to the officers
Florek reports the man refused to identify himself and refused to move away from the roadway “causing a hazardous condition for passing motorists and officers.”
Bricault resisted the officers’ efforts to get him out of the road and struggled with the officers as they attempted to emplace handcuffs until an officer administered a brief spray of chemical irritant.
With Bricault in custody, witnesses identified him as the person they had seen yelling and smashing a shed at the business.
He was transported to the station and booked on charges of resisting arrest, malicious destruction of property valued more than $250 and disorderly conduct.
While he was bring escorted to a holding cell, Bricault kicked an officer in the groin and was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer.
He appeared in Westfield District Court yesterday for arraignment before Judge Philip Contant and was released on his personal recognizance pending a July 9 hearing.
