NEWS
Robot Dog ‘Roscoe’ Shot 3 Times In Standoff With Massachusetts State Police
Massachusetts State Police
A robot dog is earning praise after it was shot by a barricaded suspect earlier this month, taking the place of what would have been a human officer or a real K9 dog, Massachusetts State Police said Wednesday.
Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad Troopers John Ragosa, Michael Rockett, and Stephan McKay responded at around noon on March 6 to a residence at 24 St. Francis Circle in Barnstable to assist a local police SWAT Team with an armed, barricaded male suspect that had already fired toward officers with a rifle.
Along with two PacBot 510 tracked robots, the troopers deployed a SPOT four-legged robot dog nicknamed Roscoe to locate the suspect within the residence. Using the remote-controlled robots, troopers searched the residence to safely gather crucial intelligence and provide situational awareness of the suspect and the homes interior.
Ragosa first deployed Roscoe, one of two SPOT robots operated by the unit, to the top two floors of the residence and cleared them. Ragosa then sent Roscoe to the home’s basement. After clearing a closet, Roscoe was about to open another door when the armed suspect appeared from a bedroom.
The suspect knocked Roscoe over and began ascending the stairs leading out of the bedroom, but but he didn’t know the robot dog, developed by Boston Dynamics, could right itself.
Trooper Ragosa then began to walk Roscoe up the stairs behind the ascending suspect. When the suspect realized, with apparent surprise, that Roscoe was behind him on the stairs, he again knocked the robot over and then raised his rifle in the Roscoes direction. The robot suddenly lost communications, police said.
Troopers later discovered Roscoe had been shot three times, rendering it inoperable.
After he shot Roscoe, the suspect shot at one of the PacBot robots that was outside a sliding door, but he missed, instead striking an above-ground pool in the backyard. That allowed SWAT officers to deploy tear gas into the home.
The suspect surrendered a short time later without incident, state police said.
The insertion of Roscoe into the suspect residence prevented the need, at that stage of response, from inserting human operators or a real dog, and may have prevented a police officer or K9 partner from being involved in an exchange of gunfire, state police said.
Ragosa brought Roscoe to Boston Dynamics the next day to remove the bullets and assess the damage. The company is keeping Roscoe for research, and the state police bomb squad is getting a new SPOT robot.
TMX contributed to this article.
