Brandishing, not hypothetically.....

MisterHappy

MisterHappy

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Interesting twists: Court employee, and I'm sure that the fact she had a .40 will be mentioned, too....[smile]


http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/n...140/Cops-Natick-woman-told-them-she-had-a-gun

By Norman Miller/Daily News staff
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Apr 02, 2010 @ 12:37 AM
FRAMINGHAM — A Middlesex Superior Court assistant clerk is on unpaid leave after Natick Police charged her with three counts of assault with a firearm.

Martha Fulham, 48, was scheduled to be arraigned in Framingham District Court yesterday, but her lawyer, Peter Muse, asked the judge to postpone the arraignment until April 12 to give him time to file a motion to dismiss the charges for lack of probable cause.

Judge Sarah Singer agreed to postpone the arraignment.

Fulham, of 7 Webster St., is charged with three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Police began the investigation into Fulham on March 10.

That day, a Waltham man told police he was parked on Webster Street around 7:45 p.m. waiting for his daughter, who was a volunteer at the Food Pantry at Coolidge House.

At one point, according to a police report filed by Natick Officer James F. Keohane, the man heard a woman's voice say "Can I help you?" He looked and saw a woman standing on the front porch of the house he was parked in front of.

"The female had a black handgun in her right hand and was pointing it upward towards the roof," the officer wrote.

Fulham never pointed the gun at him, according to the report. The woman said she was upset about people parking on her lawn.

She asked the man to move, and he did so. He later reported the incident to police.

Officers later went to the house and knocked on the door and announced they were the police.

Fulham's husband let them into the home, and they again announced they were the police.

"At that time, a female yelled out from inside the door stating, 'I have a gun,"' said Keohane. "I was shocked, I did not expect her to come to the door with the gun. Her tone made me react and bring my gun to the low ready position."

When Fulham came to the door, she put the gun on the floor.

Fulham said she was not confronting the man earlier or threatening him. Rather, she said she was scared because she had just seen a news report about a home invasion.

Fulham did have a license to carry. Police confiscated her gun permit, her .40 caliber Beretta and several rounds of ammunition.

In court yesterday, her lawyer, Muse, argued Fulham did not exhibit any threatening behavior in either incident.

"If she actively acted in an aggressive manner, they would have arrested her," he said.

Police charged her on March 10, and the court summoned Fulham for her arraignment.

Muse said Fulham did not announce herself as holding a gun to threaten police, but rather to warn them so they wouldn't shoot her when she came out of the room.

Fulham is due back in court on April 12.

(Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or [email protected].)
 
She should have contacted local NES members for an open carry BBQ on her front lawn and her parking problems would have been solved.
 
It's hard to comment on this one. On one hand, she doesn't seem like she was ever a danger to anyone, but on the other, she's gotta be a couple cards short of a full deck to just flaunt a (possibly loaded) firearm around like that. [thinking]
 
"The female had a black handgun in her right hand and was pointing it upward towards the roof," the officer wrote.

Fulham never pointed the gun at him, according to the report. The woman said she was upset about people parking on her lawn.
Click to expand...

I get upset when people take up two spots with their car during a snow ban but I don't go outside "brandishing" my Glock when I rip the neighbor a new one.
Seems to be an element of common sense lacking here...
 
right_to_bear_arms said:
I get upset when people take up two spots with their car during a snow ban but I don't go outside "brandishing" my Glock when I rip the neighbor a new one.
Seems to be an element of common sense lacking here...
Click to expand...


This has a lot of parallels to the guy who flashed his holstered gun to another driver during some road rage thing a year or so ago. Anyone know how that one turned out?
 
They should leave her alone. I wouldn't do what she did. Not for any moral reason, but just because it would cause the sort of grief she is getting. She showed a guy her gun, then, in her own home, announced she had a gun. Replace "gun" with just about any other object, including some weapons, and nobody would care. Stupid, yes. Should any of it be illegal? No. People should get off her lawn and stay out of her house.
 
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Here's a Google Maps link to the 7 Webster Street address in Framingham.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...488,-71.413525&spn=0.000477,0.000915&t=h&z=20

She says people were parking on her front lawn. But if you look carefully there is a sidewalk in front of her house that would keep parked cars a good distance away from her lawn. Yes, there is a small strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. But there also appears to be a curb in place, and there really are not many cars parked on the street in this pic.

Something seems odd here.
 
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This doesn't pass the smell test.

What would you do if you were parked on the side of the road and the neighbor came to you w/ a handgun out?
 
Palladin said:
welcome to Amerika!
Click to expand...

No, welcome to MA. We all must realize living in MA we have to handle things differently. If she was afraid her gun should have been concealed when she went outside. Don't ever show your weapon until you are ready to shoot. If your in a bad situation and its escalating just let the perp know you have the means to defend yourself; don't show or say you have a gun until your going to shoot. Now If I was still in Arizona, this would be no problem as long as she did not point it at him.

Edit: Unless your'e in your home and their is an intruder; then by all means have your gun out and ready.
 
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richc said:
Here's a Google Maps link to the 7 Webster Street address in Framingham.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...488,-71.413525&spn=0.000477,0.000915&t=h&z=20

She says people were parking on her front lawn. But if you look carefully there is a sidewalk in front of her house that would keep parked cars a good distance away from her lawn. Yes, there is a small strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. But there also appears to be a curb in place, and there really are not many cars parked on the street in this pic.

Something seems odd here.
Click to expand...

The dateline was Framingham (as that's where the court is ) but it specified "Natick police"

Google link to 7 webster, Natick:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....365643&spn=0.030036,0.07699&t=h&z=14&iwloc=A

This is an ambiguous one, but, since John Law didn't grab her then and there, I'd say that there was no immediate percieved danger.....
 
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EastwoodMyLawn.jpg
 
The article speaks of the Coolidge house... on Webster St. Google-fu says that it's in Brookline...
 
There are a number of Coolidge named places in Natick as well. Coolidge Hill for instance is right around the corner from Webster Rd in Natick.
 
MisterHappy said:
Officers later went to the house and knocked on the door and announced they were the police.

Fulham's husband let them into the home, and they again announced they were the police.

"At that time, a female yelled out from inside the door stating, 'I have a gun,"' said Keohane. "I was shocked, I did not expect her to come to the door with the gun. Her tone made me react and bring my gun to the low ready position."

When Fulham came to the door, she put the gun on the floor.
Click to expand...

This is sheer foolishness. I carry around the house, so if the cops come to the door, I'll have a holstered, concealed firearm on me, but there is no freaking way I'd come to greet them with a gun in my hand while announcing it unless I'd just been the victim of a home invasion or something.

Also, FWIW, Ofc. Keohane is a good guy, so I doubt he embellished the situation in his report.

Larry Legend said:
This has a lot of parallels to the guy who flashed his holstered gun to another driver during some road rage thing a year or so ago. Anyone know how that one turned out?
Click to expand...

Do you mean Linda Hamilton?

http://billstclair.com/LindaHamilton/index.html

M1911 said:
If she was afraid, she never should have gone outside in the first place. Get the gun, call 911, stay inside behind locked doors.
Click to expand...

No kidding.

jcohen said:
Stories like this make me cringe. It gives the anti-gun crowd leverage by providing an example of a private citizen in lawful possession of a firearm exercising very poor judgment. It makes the gun owners look paranoid, nutty, and dangerous. Hard to believe this is an officer of the court.
Click to expand...

+1
 

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