Brandishing A Realistic-Looking BB Gun Put Police And Bystanders In Real Danger

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — A man who engineered a potentially deadly confrontation with police has been convicted of felony charges.

Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi announced that on 43-year-old Kevin Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three felony counts of menacing a police officer, one felony count of reckless endangerment, and one count of falsely reporting an incident. The charges stemmed from a fraught incident in which he pointed a realistic-looking BB gun at responding police officers after reporting a false emergency.

"This defendant deliberately manufactured a dangerous confrontation with law enforcement, placing the lives of responding police officers, innocent residents, and himself at extraordinary risk," Parisi said. "Our police officers respond to emergency calls with the expectation that they are being summoned to protect someone in need, not knowingly lured into a potentially deadly encounter. By falsely reporting an armed individual and then pointing a realistic-looking weapon at responding officers, the defendant created a situation that could have ended in unimaginable tragedy in a matter of seconds."

The district attorney said the thoughtless actions that day could have destroyed lives.

"The fact that no one was killed or seriously injured does not diminish the severity of his conduct," the DA said. "Our officers should never have to face a life-or-death decision because someone has intentionally engineered a confrontation. I commend the responding officers for their professionalism and restraint under extraordinarily dangerous circumstances."