Police officers may be there “to protect and serve” – but a group of Massachusetts youths seems to have taken the latter part of that motto a little too literally.
Three people were arrested in the state Tuesday after allegedly demanding that cops dig out their snowbound car, leading to one of the suspects striking an officer.
The trio’s vehicle got trapped in Framingham, 20 miles west of Boston, when the driver lost control and plowed into a bank of snow amid the winter storm that hit the Northeast, the MetroWest Daily News reported.
The car’s occupants, a woman and two men, tried unsuccessfully to push the vehicle free as traffic was brought to a standstill.
According to police, the group then became angry when an officer who stopped to help told them they had to call a tow truck.
The officer tried to speak to the driver, 19-year-old Bianca Torres, but “was immediately met with angry people demanding [the officer] … get a shovel and help them dig and push the vehicle out of the snowbank,” police spokeswoman Lt. Patricia Grigas said Wednesday.
The officer called for a tow truck and started directing traffic, while Torres continued to demand that police shovel them out instead, according to the news outlet.
Once the truck arrived, 18-year-old passenger Nathaniel Chickering allegedly refused to let the car be towed and walked to the travel lane to argue, further blocking traffic.
When police arrested Chickering, the other passenger, 21-year-old Michael Rodriguez, allegedly struck an officer in the stomach in an effort to get his friend released.
Cops proceeded to arrest Rodriguez, and when Torres attempted to intervene, they busted her too, the outlet reported.
A police search found Chickering to be in possession of a spring-loaded knife.
All three suspects were charged with disorderly conduct. Rodriguez was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer, while Chickering was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon.
The trio were due to be arraigned Wednesday in Framingham District Court.