Stay in the know! Sign up to get Fauquier County news updates delivered to your inbox.
Free classifieds! Members can also post calendar events, news, opinions and more ... all for free! Register now!
April 5, 2018
Updated: Town cops take armed man into custody
Warrenton police Thursday night took an armed man into custody after a brief standoff in the Leeds Square townhouse neighborhood.
Officers responded to a report of “a man with a gun” at 7:46 p.m., Police Chief Louis Battle said.
“The caller reported that Roxie Edward Clater, 61, of Warrenton, had brandished a loaded firearm, threatened suicide, then fired two rounds . . . inside the residence,” Chief Battle said Friday morning in a press release.
Police responded in large numbers to a lower-level unit in the 100 Block of Leeds Court West.
“Upon the officers’ arrival, Mr. Clater refused to exit the residence,” Chief Battle said.
Police set up a perimeter, told other residents to stay inside and established communication with the man, according to the chief.
“After a period of negotiation with police, Mr. Clater was taken into custody. Mr. Clater was found to be extremely intoxicated.”
When the man came outside, officers “tased” and took him into custody without firing a shot, Chief Battle said Thursday. Police recovered a gun at the scene, according to the chief.
The neighborhood reopened around 9:15 p.m. Thursday.
Police charged Mr. Clater with discharging a firearm in an occupied dwelling, brandishing a firearm and reckless handling of a firearm. He remained in the county jail without bond Friday morning.
 |
 |
Member comments
Please, be polite. Avoid name-calling and profanity.
For credibility, sign your real name; stand behind your comments. Readers will give less credence to anonymous posts.
Watchdog20186 · April 11, 2018 at 7:15 pm
Battle, I and my colleagues are trying to make sense out of your use of force matrix. Who made this thing up? Did you bring this Miami Vice Crockett/Tubbs garbage with you from Miami? How can an officer navigate this convoluted document and know what to do in a use of force situation?
From the looks of it, to use the taser (and this comes from verbatim from YOUR policy!), the suspect must display:
Aggressive physical resistance- A subject makes overt hostile attacking movements, which may cause injury but are not likely to cause death or great bodily harm to the Officer or others.
Did the suspect make any attacking movements toward you or others while he was outside the residence? The body cameras will show.
Let's take this a step further.. the next level on YOUR matrix to use the taser AND impact weapons (such as a baton) is for the suspect to display Aggravated physical resistance- A subject makes overt, hostile, attacking movements with or without a weapon with the intent and apparent ability to cause death or great bodily harm to the Officer or others.
Did the suspect do any of these? No.
Anyone else in your department that would have tased this individual would be heavily disciplined or fired. But since you are god's gift to law enforcement its ok for you to do. You made that loud and clear to your guys.
From the looks of it, to use the taser (and this comes from verbatim from YOUR policy!), the suspect must display:
Aggressive physical resistance- A subject makes overt hostile attacking movements, which may cause injury but are not likely to cause death or great bodily harm to the Officer or others.
Did the suspect make any attacking movements toward you or others while he was outside the residence? The body cameras will show.
Let's take this a step further.. the next level on YOUR matrix to use the taser AND impact weapons (such as a baton) is for the suspect to display Aggravated physical resistance- A subject makes overt, hostile, attacking movements with or without a weapon with the intent and apparent ability to cause death or great bodily harm to the Officer or others.
Did the suspect do any of these? No.
Anyone else in your department that would have tased this individual would be heavily disciplined or fired. But since you are god's gift to law enforcement its ok for you to do. You made that loud and clear to your guys.
Watchdog20186 · April 10, 2018 at 4:48 pm
Why hasn't local media done any further reporting on this as Battle tries to rally the troops to sell his reasoning to them for tasing this suspect? Guess what? The officers see what you are trying to do.
FauquierNow, have you requested the body camera video or videos from this scene? Lets do some investigative reporting instead of simply posting verbatim what press releases you are provided. Ask questions.
Have you interviewed deputies from the sheriff department who watched this play out?
Ask for a copy of the police department guideline for use of tasers and then watch the video and let the citizens know of your opinion. Guidelines and videos should be public information and accessible by the Va. Freedom of information act.
#timesup
FauquierNow, have you requested the body camera video or videos from this scene? Lets do some investigative reporting instead of simply posting verbatim what press releases you are provided. Ask questions.
Have you interviewed deputies from the sheriff department who watched this play out?
Ask for a copy of the police department guideline for use of tasers and then watch the video and let the citizens know of your opinion. Guidelines and videos should be public information and accessible by the Va. Freedom of information act.
#timesup
Watchdog20186 · April 8, 2018 at 10:09 am
The suspect was not tased by officers, he was tased by Chief Battle. Funny how he leaves that out of his press release. So let me get this right... battle is the incident commander.. why is he tasing suspects when he is supposed to be overseeing the operation? Is it because he is such a control freak that he has no confidence in his officers and has to do everything himself? Since he tased someone, who determines whether this was an appropriate use of force? Town Manager? The suspect was unarmed so why was he tased? See http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/151191.P.pdf which is a court case that deals with tasing individuals.
Hopefully, battle will be transparent and make the body cam video of this incident available to the public.
Now lets see if he puts together another dog and pony show by shutting down court square when the suspect has his court case heard just like when the pharmacy murderer appeared in court last summer. That was a slap in the face to Mosier who is responsible for court security, not the town police.
Hopefully, battle will be transparent and make the body cam video of this incident available to the public.
Now lets see if he puts together another dog and pony show by shutting down court square when the suspect has his court case heard just like when the pharmacy murderer appeared in court last summer. That was a slap in the face to Mosier who is responsible for court security, not the town police.
Facebook comments
Enter your email address above to begin receiving
news updates from FauquierNow.com via email.
news updates from FauquierNow.com via email.
Friday, August 17
Animal Control calls last year, backpacks for students in need, jury trials in a year and schools’ opening enrollment
Friday, August 17
Paul Linz moving to Florida after leading Fauquier Habitat for Humanity almost two years
Thursday, August 16
First day runs smoothly for 1,200 students and staff that includes 7 who started there in 1994
No listings
© Copyright 2011-201850 Culpeper Street, Suite 3
Warrenton, Virginia 20187
540.359.6574
