Man killed by police 'was acting irrational'
PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times Dartmouth and state police examine one of the areas that Joseph M. Ramos Jr. spent time at on Milton Street in Dartmouth. Mr. Ramos was shot and killed by Dartmouth police Tuesday evening after he reportedly rushed police with a weapon.
By
Curt Brown
cbrown@s-t.com
August 13, 2009 2:00 AM
DARTMOUTH - The Bristol County District Attorney's Office is investigating the death of a 42-year-old Dartmouth man, fatally shot by police after witnesses said he charged at two officers while wielding a screwdriver.
Joseph M. Ramos Jr., a former track star and football player at Dartmouth High School in the mid-1980s, was shot about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday outside 52 Milton St. near the corner of Fifth Street, the District Attorney's Office said.
Ramos was armed with a pole with several nails protruding from it and later a screwdriver when Officers Jared White and Scott Brooks encountered him about 9:15 p.m. in the South Dartmouth neighborhood, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Ramos, who witnesses described as about 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 225 pounds and in good physical shape, had apparently dropped the pole before he lunged at Brooks with a screwdriver, officials said. Brooks, a first-year member of the department, was knocked to the ground by Ramos, they said.
The two then struggled on the ground, while White, a 14-year veteran of the department, released his police dog. However, the dog failed to subdue Ramos.
Despite White's repeated commands, Ramos refused to drop the weapon, the District Attorney's Office said, adding that, at some point after that, White fired a single shot and Ramos dropped to the ground.
Ramos was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, where he was pronounced dead.
Milton Street is located off Slocum Road, about a quarter mile from the Dartmouth Police Station.
Terri Carter, who lives on Milton Street, said the incident was touched off when Ramos banged on her door about 9 p.m., "asking for Mary" and later saying there were "rabid animals" in the area.
Carter, who said she has lived in her home for 10 years, said Ramos had also come to her door "a couple of times (earlier) this week," also asking for "Mary."
No "Mary" lives there, Carter said.
Over the years, she recalled seeing Ramos in the neighborhood, sometimes riding a bicycle up and down Milton Street, and said he never bothered anyone but never talked to anyone, either.
But Tuesday night, he was obviously agitated, she said.
Carter said Ramos was armed with a stick with a metal piece on one end that he kept swinging back and forth when he banged on her door. "He was acting irrational," she said, noting she became concerned for her property and went outside after Ramos left.
Police arrived soon after and confronted Ramos with one officer standing in front of him and the other positioned behind Ramos, she said.
Carter said Ramos seemed coherent as he answered officers' questions with his hands in his pockets.
Then suddenly, she said, Ramos pulled something out of his pocket and charged at Brooks. She said the officer struck his head on a cruiser door as he fell to the ground and both he and Ramos went down in a heap.
At that point, White released the police dog, which Carter said bit Brooks, giving Ramos the opportunity to get up and charge at White. Ramos appeared to have something in his hand, she said.
White yelled repeatedly for Ramos to stay on the ground. "Get down, stay down, get down, get down, get down," she recalled the officer saying. "He kept saying it over and over."
"It was so surreal. (Ramos) hadn't said a word for 10 years, not even a wave, and then this," she said.
Police could not confirm Carter's report that the police dog bit an officer. Dartmouth Police Capt. Dennis McGuire said there was considerable confusion at the scene and he did not know if the dog bit the wrong person.
According to court records, Ramos had a criminal record that included prior arrests for marijuana and cocaine possession, trespassing, larceny, assault and battery and disturbing the peace. Most of those charges were dismissed. He was twice placed on probation for drug-related offenses.
Ramos had not been arrested in Massachusetts since 1998, when he was charged with breaking and entering in the nighttime. The case was continued without a finding, court records show.
What happened to change his life so dramatically is a mystery. At Dartmouth High School, Ramos was a standout long and triple jumper and a high and intermediate hurdler.
"He was a very good performer at track," said Bill Kavanaugh, his former coach. "He was a natural. He was a big kid. He had great legs."
Ramos was also "an extremely pleasant kid to coach. He was always smiling. He was a pleasure," said Kavanaugh, an assistant football coach at Dartmouth High when Ramos was a running back and defensive end there.
After graduating from Dartmouth High, Ramos attended Northeastern University, Kavanaugh said.
"That's the last I heard of him," he said.
Neighbors said Ramos lived in a rundown home on Milton Street, owned by the Ramos family and down the street from Carter's home. Shingles on the house are worn and falling off, the windows are knocked out and the property is overgrown with vegetation.
However, Paul J. Andrews, a Boston attorney who represents the Ramos family, said Ramos didn't live there, that he lived with his father, Joseph Ramos Sr., sister and brother at 14 Milton St. Andrews called Joseph Jr. "the caretaker" for the rundown property.
The Ramos family allowed the media to view the rear of the property where there were two bicycles, bottles of water, a couch, chairs and a wheelbarrow in plain view on a back porch or in the rear yard.
The attorney said state and Dartmouth police got a search warrant for the property and took some items.
Describing the Ramos family as "upset and distraught," Andrews said they do not know the facts of the shooting and are trying to learn what led to it.
But from the family's perspective, "there had to be another way" to resolve the situation, Andrews said.
Andrews said he could shed no light on neighbors' reports of erratic behavior.
McGuire said White and Brooks, the officers involved in the shooting, are currently on paid administrative leave, pending the completion of an internal investigation and a separate investigation by the District Attorney's Office.
He said they were taken Tuesday night to Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River. Brooks was treated for scrapes and bruises suffered in the struggle with Ramos and White was seen for stress related to the incident.
Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter, said an autopsy will be performed and toxicology tests will be conducted, with the results of the investigation announced when it is completed.
Staff writer Brian Fraga contributed to this report.
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