Police: Claremont man arrested after firing gun inside home
Published: 10-07-2023 6:24 AM |
CLAREMONT — A 38-year-old Claremont man faces a reckless conduct with a deadly weapon charge after he was arrested following reports that he fired a weapon inside his home.
Joshua Deveney, of Heritage Drive in Claremont, has been also charged with witness tampering in connection with an early Friday morning incident in which police responded to reports of gunshots at an apartment he shared with a woman and four children, police said.
No one was injured in the incident, Claremont Police said in a news release on Friday afternoon. Deveney was taken into custody and being held at Sullivan County House of Corrections in Unity pending a scheduled arraignment on Friday afternoon, according to Claremont Police.
Claremont police said they responded to the scene on Heritage Drive at 3:54 a.m. after receiving multiple reports from neighbors who had heard gunshots coming from inside an apartment.
When police arrived they were informed by the apartment’s adult female resident that Deveney was asleep on the couch, had an “AK 47-style” firearm and threatened to harm her if she called police, police said in an affidavit in support of the charges.
The adult female resident said that Deveney had obtained the firearm to protect his family from what he perceived as threats, but he had been acting erratically and threatened to harm himself with the weapon.
Deveney had been drinking and fired the gun in the early morning hours through an open door and in the direction of a residence where he believed people lived who threatened the safety of his family, the woman told police.
Police said that after they secured the area they were able to access the apartment with keys the woman had tossed to them from a second floor window.
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“It was clear to officers that Deveney was highly intoxicated” when police took him into custody without incident, police said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.