By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A Rochester resident is “extremely” fortunate he didn’t get shot when he allegedly pointed a very real looking toy gun at police on a busy Centralia street yesterday afternoon.
Officers were called about 1 p.m. to a report a man was walking up the 1200 block of North Pearl Street waving a pistol in the air and pointing it at people, according to the Centralia Police Department.
Sgt. Stacy Denham said the man aimed his gun at two officers, who had their weapons drawn but didn’t fire because innocent people in oncoming cars could have been hit.
The subject continued to walk closer to a residential area and ignore police commands, while the officers followed him until backup arrived, Denham said.
Denham said when he got on the scene, he positioned his patrol car to protect block vehicles which had pulled to the side of the road.
“I was able to see the gun in his right hand, finally he stopped, turned and faced me,” Denham said. “I drew my pistol. He dropped his.”
The all black cap gun from the front looked exactly like a snub nosed pistol, Denham said.
Roy A. Dever, 53, is from Rochester. Police don’t know exactly what he was up to, Denham said.
“The only thing he did say, along with a lot of other rantings, he wished he would have forced us to shoot him,” Denham said.
Denham said he did have a clear shot at the man in that final moment.
“He’s extremely lucky he didn’t get shot,” he said.
Dever was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for three counts of first-degree assault.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Crazee, by all rights your friend should have been shot. I don’t care what his mental state is, to place police officers in that position, is outrageous. To hope you can force a police officer to kill you because you don’t have the stones to do it yourself is the epitome of cowardice. Roy is just that, a coward.
Bobby, you’re right, bad guys remove the orange tips or just paint them black. They have also been known to paint real guns orange or paint the front of the real guns orange, like toys. I would never expect a police officer to assume it was a toy, no matter how it was painted. Point it at a police officer you should expect the worse case scenario. This guy should be dead… he got lucky, in some cities we’d be reading his obituary.
Thank God you didnt fire on him officers. He is a good person. He is under personal duress and just doesnt know how to cope right now. He needs good mental health care to help him learn how to cope with the obstacles he is facing. Suicide by cop is not the answer Roy. There is help for you. Hang in there pal, you have people who care for you. I know of one who, right now, is so sad that this has happened.
Good call Centralia! The police have to be aware of where their rounds go and bad guys don’t care. This sounds like it could have been a case of someone considering suicide by cop.
All toys guns and air guns should have to have the bright orange tip on the barrel to make it easier to distinguish from real. There are cases where people pull those off though.