Assault Charge: Dozing Driver Wakes, Kicks Cop

WARWICK, RI — A wellness check for a couple sleeping in a tan 2010 Mercedes Milan at the 3335 Post Road Cumberland Farms resulted in a misdemeanor assault charge April 10 at 2:55 a.m.

Officers Conor DiSpirito,  Charles Vella and a RI State Trooper were called to the store for a report of two people asleep in the Mercedes.

Vella reached the Cumberland Farms first, finding the two people in the car, asleep, as reported, the front passenger door open and ajar, with a woman asleep in the car behind it, according to the officer’s report. Vella woke the woman, who told him that the couple had stopped to sleep because they had been drinking and were tired.

Vella identified the driver as Rasheen Pierce, 32, of 23 Welfare Ave., Warwick, RI,  who is known for carrying knives, according to the officer’s report. When the woman failed to wake him, Vella walked to his side of the car and and shook him, but was also unable to wake the driver. Finally, Vella performed a sternum rub on the Pierce (a firm rub on the sternum (the flat bone in the middle of the chest) to see if there’s a reaction. The stimulus is a standard technique to test the responsiveness of sleeping people by EMTs and other first responders. The stimulus woke Pierce, according to the officer’s report.

Pierce attempted repeatedly to close his door on Vella, then stood and began reaching for his pockets and waist. Vella began patting him down to check for weapons but the driver pulled his hands away from the officer.

RI Trooper Cpl. Brendan Palmer arrived and assisted as Pierce continued to struggle against the officers, calling “homophobic slurs” at the officers as they wrestled. Vella was able to handcuff Pierce and began walking him to his cruiser.

On the way, Pierce went limp, dropping to the ground, “as if he were a dead fish,” according to Vella’s report. Vella lifted him from the ground and carried him to his cruiser. As the officers attempted to place him in the cruiser, Pierce stiffened his legs so they stuck outside the cruiser, forcing it open. Vella told Pierce he was under arrest and that he should place his feet inside the cruiser, but he continued to resist, at one point kicking Vella in the head.

The officers removed Pierce from the cruiser and placed him inside a prisoner transport van, which another officer retrieved from the station. When he was finally transported to the station, 99 Veterans Memorial Drive, Warwick, RI, Vella charged him with resisting arrest, simple assault and disorderly conduct.