Police ID victim, officer that fired his weapon
TIVERTON — Four police officers approached the house on Pelletier Lane with their guns drawn.
Scott Banville, 44, met them at the door with a buffalo gun in his hands, police allege.
He was ordered to drop the weapon. Instead, he raised the rifle and was shot, falling back into his home, police say. He fell with bullets in his chest and arm.
Now State Police detectives and prosecutors with the Attorney General are working with the local police at the home, trying to determine what happened.
“Last night, at 11:25, police received a call of a domestic going on at 222 Pelletier Lane,” Police Chief Patrick Jones said Thursday morning. The caller told police the man in the home had a high powered rifle and had threatened his wife with it, Jones said.
The entire night shift responded, all of them arriving simultaneously, Jones said. They had been to the home before to handle calls of domestic violence, he said. The report of a weapon involved convinced the officers to approach the home with guns drawn, he said.
Banville walked into his doorway with the rifle in his hands, police allege. Jones said the rifle was a .50 caliber muzzle loader, a powerful, large caliber rifle. That gun was frequently used a century ago to hunt buffalo. It is used now to hunt big game.
“He was told, repeatedly, by the officers to put the rifle down,” Jones said. “The husband, the suspect, pointed the rifle at the officers.”
Lt. Scott Beaulieu fired twice, hitting Banville twice. Beaulieu is the senior and highest ranking officer on the night shift. Jones said Beaulieu was an 18 ½ year veteran. He had never been involved in a shooting incident before, Jones said.
Beaulieu was placed on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation, which is standard procedure. The State Police are processing the scene and leading the investigation under the direction of the Attorney General’s office. That is also standard procedure with officer involved shootings in Rhode Island.
All the officers involved in the incident are cooperating with State Police investigators, Jones said.
“I feel the officer’s actions were justified at the time,” Jones said. “Given the threat to the suspect’s wife and the threat to the officers, force was justified.”
Banville, as well as his wife and their two children, were in the home at the time of the shooting. The children are age 6 and 8.
No one else was harmed. Banville was reported in stable condition in the intensive care unit at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.
"A warrant has been signed for his arrest charging him with one count of felony assault and one count of domestic disorderly conduct," Jones said.
Police investigate a shooting on Pelletier Lane, Tiverton, just before midnight Wednesday.pic.twitter.com/KTuaJ3FW72
— Kevin P. O'Connor (@HNKPO)April 5, 2018Pelletier Lane is a short street that ends on the shore of Stafford Pond. There is a condominium complex at the Stafford Road end with a mix of single family homes and summer houses closer to the water. Most homes had canoes or kayaks in their yards.
“It’s a quiet street,” resident Christine Buchanan said. “When something happens, we all pay attention.”
(function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id))return;js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src='https://embed.playbuzz.com/sdk.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document,'script','playbuzz-sdk'));
The street was blocked at its south end by a Tiverton cruiser. A State Police crime scene truck was parked in front of 222 Pelletier Lane. Town and state police cars came and went through the morning.
Town records list the owners of 222 Pelletier Lane as Robert Paul and Scott Banville.
Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.