WORCESTER, MA—A Millbury man is being held without bail after police say his girlfriend recently pounded on the doors of the town's fire headquarters afraid he was about to shoot her.
Mitchell C. Bourque, 27, was arrested Dec. 22 after he allegedly ran away drunkenly from firefighters who chased him and then eluded a state police dog and aerial search before being caught sleeping on his uncle's couch.
According to a police report filed in Central District Court, a 34-year-old woman who lives near the Elm Street fire headquarters banged on the overhead doors around 9:43 p.m. Dec. 21, and said she was afraid her boyfriend was going to kill her and her dogs.
After ushering the woman and her two dogs inside, firefighters confronted the man, and he took off running, police said. The firefighters who gave chase lost him after a time, police said, noticing that, at one point, he appeared to drop something that made a metallic sound and pick it up.
It wasn't until they returned to the station, police said, that the firefighters learned the man allegedly had a gun in his pocket. They then told police the sound they heard was likely the gun.
The woman told police her boyfriend, Bourque, had threatened to shoot her and her dogs after an argument that happened after she discovered he'd been secretly drinking all day while they were Christmas shopping.
The woman said Bourque put one of several guns he owns in his pocket, told her he was leaving and threatened to kill her, her dogs, her family and police officers if she should call police.
The woman said she told Bourque she would not call police, but that he did not believe her. She said she texted her sister to call 911 and told him she was going to walk her dogs.
The woman said that Bourque, repeating that he didn't trust her, followed her when she left with the dogs, his gun allegedly still in his pocket. She said her sister then called Bourque, at which point he answered his phone and she ran toward the fire station and banged on the doors.
As the woman spoke to police, state troopers attempted to track Bourque with a search dog and with an air wing in the sky. Police were able to get a ping on Bourque's cellphone in a wooded area, but said it appeared the phone was shut off before they could find him.
Then, around 6:16 the next morning, Bourque's uncle called police to report that his security system had triggered overnight and that he could see, through a live video feed, a man sleeping on his couch.
Police entered the 11 Warren Ave. home using a security code, guns drawn, and said they found Bourque standing with his hands up near the couch. Inside a jacket on the couch, they said, was a loaded 9 mm Ruger.
Bourque was arrested without incident, Millbury Officer Jarrod Woeller wrote. He told officers that after outrunning the firefighters he had ran to his parents' house on Herricks Lane, then driven his uncle's truck, which was parked there for repairs, to his uncle's home to "figure things out."
Police had questioned Bourque's father at his 32 Herricks Lane home the night before. Police wrote that the man's father stated he had not heard from his son.
Police seized five additional firearms from Bourque – a Smith & Wesson 9 mm Shield from the glove compartment of a vehicle parked at his parents' home, a Glock .22 stored in a safe in his parent's basement and three unsecured firearms from a shed at the home.
Bourque told police those firearms – a 12-gauge shotgun, .22 caliber bolt-action rifle and Ruger 9mm LC9 – belonged to a friend.
Bourque had an active license to carry firearms. Police noted in their report that they would suspend the license.
Bourque was ordered held without bail in Central District Court Dec. 27 after a judge determined he was too dangerous to release.
In a ruling included in court documents, Judge Michael G. Allard-Madaus checked off boxes next to "history of mental illness" and "record of convictions" as among his reasons, and hand-wrote on the form that Bourque has a "history of violence."
It was not clear which convictions to which the judge alluded. A summary of prior charges against Bourque included in court records appeared to indicate he'd been charged, but not convicted, with drunken driving in 2019 and strangulation in 2017.
Bourque, of 6 Waters St., Apt. C, is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, intimidating a witness, improper storage of a large-capacity firearm, carrying a firearm while intoxicated, improper storage of a firearm (three counts) and animal cruelty.
The last charge was added after the man's girlfriend told police he recently had grabbed one of her beagles by the throat to the point where it yelped and shook with fear.
Bourque is due back in court Jan. 27 for a probable cause hearing.
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