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WCVB.com Boston
UPDATED 1:50 PM EST Jan 24, 2013
Gene Guilbeault to be in court Thursday
Avon police requested the help of the state police to find a distraught and possibly armed man, Gene Guilbeault, 48, who had left his Bridgewater home earlier that evening after an argument.
Prosecutor Anne Yas said Guilbault’s wife came Wednesday night and found him in a closet with the end of a rifle in his mouth threatening suicide. After she called his brother, Guilbault left with another gun, Yas said.
Relatives eventually convinced Guilbault, a former police officer and corrections officer at the Dedham House of Corrections, to surrender to police at a Dunkin’ Donuts on Page Street.
Police found the man at about 11 p.m. in the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot and the man drove at troopers after a verbal altercation. Troopers fired several shots at the pickup after they feared for their safety.
Guilbeault suffered minor injuries in the altercation, and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton.
Guilbeault was arraigned in Stoughton District Court on charges of assault with intent to murder; assault with a dangerous weapon; assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; assault and battery on a police officer; failure to stop; and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Yas said Guilbault’s problems caused his wife to file a restraining order against him at Brockton District Court.
“His behavior was extremely erratic. His wife is in fear for herself and her young daughter,” Yas said.
Guilbault’s defense attorney Jacqueline Modiste said he suffers from depression and PTSD and is on Klonopin and Prozac.
“He went through a traumatic incident when a young child died in his arms after being struck by a car,” Modiste said, in explaining the root of some of her client’s mental problems.
No firearms were found in Guilbeault’s vehicle. Guilbeault, who has 43 guns registered in his name, dropped off the gun he left his home with at his mother’s house, but he was still armed with two knives, prosecutors said. Five of Guilbeault’s guns are not accounted for, according to prosecutors.
During the altercation at the Dunkin’ Donuts, one of the troopers’ bullets hit another truck that was parked in the lot. The driver said the bullet landed inches from his head.
“It entered from the outside, went through this towel. And then it went all the way through (the wall of the cab),” trucker Thomas Fischer said. “(The bullet) dropped straight down on the pillow. My head was right here.”
The truck driver and state troopers were not injured in the altercation.