Robotic Dog Lauded for Saving Lives After Taking Gunfire in Massachusetts

A Boston Dynamics robotic dog is being lauded for saving lives after taking gunfire from a suspect holed up in a Barnstable, Massachusetts, home.

The Associated Press noted that the Massachusetts State Police deployed and controlled the robotic dog, named Roscoe, on March 6 after the suspect had opened fire on the officers. Roscoe cleared two levels of the Barnstable home before locating the suspect, who was hiding after a 911 call about a person holding someone at knifepoint, in the basement.

The suspect allegedly “twice knocked over the robotic dog before shooting it three times and disabling its communication.”

Police then deployed tear gas and apprehended the suspect, whom NBC 10 identified as 30-year-old Justin Moreira, who allegedly fired more than 30 shots while holed up in the house.

State police said in a statement:

The incident provided a stark example of the benefits of mobile platforms capable of opening doors and ascending stairs in tactical missions involving armed suspects. In addition to providing critically important room clearance and situational awareness capabilities, the insertion of Roscoe into the suspect residence prevented the need, at that stage of response, from inserting human operators, and may have prevented a police officer from being involved in an exchange of gunfire.

NBC 10 also pointed out that the shooting of Roscoe marks “the first time a Massachusetts State Police robot dog was shot while working and the first time that one of Boston Dynamics’ well-known Spot robots was shot while working.”

Roscoe was returned to Boston Dynamics to have the bullets removed. Boston Dynamics plans to keep Roscoe for research purposes and give the Massachusetts State Police a new robotic dog.

“We are relieved that the only casualty that day was our robot,” Boston Dynamics commented. “It’s a great example of how mobile robots like Spot can be used to save lives.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.