One of the officers arrested in the death of Freddie Gray has had disciplinary issues, having had his guns confiscated twice for threatening his ex-girlfriend’s husband with murder-suicide, according to court documents, The Guardian reports.
Baltimore Police Lt. Brian Rice, who arrested Gray after making eye contact with the 25-year-old during the fateful April 12 incident, was put on administrative suspension after being hospitalized in April 2012 for a mental-health evaluation, The Guardian reports, after he said he was making plans to shoot himself.
Andrew McAleer, the husband of Rice’s ex-girlfriend, Karyn McAleer, was granted a temporary retraining order against the cop following a “pattern of intimidation and violence,” according to court documents, The Guardian reports. McAleer, a firefighter for the city, filed a 10-page complaint against the officer in January 2013.
The restraining order was lifted after a week following a judge’s ruling that there was no basis for it to continue, the news site notes.
In the filing, Andrew McAleer claimed that Rice forced one of Karyn McAleer’s children to “shoot” a photo of the couple that Rice had “taped to a piece of cardboard intended for target practice.”
Two months prior, McAleer claimed, his wife had called to tell him to protect himself and her five children from Rice, who had allegedly called her and threatened to commit suicide.
Carroll County sheriff’s officers who responded to the emergency call ultimately confiscated the lieutenant’s police-issued weapon, along with his personal handgun, two rifles and two shotguns, and then took Rice to a hospital, The Guardian reports.
It's unknown how long Rice was hospitalized, but eight months later, he was allegedly handed yet another suspension and had his firearms seized once again after McAleer got a weeklong peace order against him, claiming that Rice’s behavior gave him a “fear of imminent harm or death,” The Guardian reports.
The order came after several alleged standoffs, including one armed incident in June 2012, the news site reports. During the 2 a.m. incident at McAleer’s home, McAleer claimed, the lieutenant was screaming and smelled of alcohol. Karyn McAleer later told her husband that Rice said he was going to kill him, according to The Guardian.
Read more at The Guardian.