A veteran Boston police officer with a quarter-century on the force and a past fatal shooting on his record now faces assault and vandalism charges after a drunken brawl with his own son — and the system moved fast to strip his powers before any verdict.

Mark Loewen, a Hub cop who earned roughly $315,000 last year — including $133,000 in detail pay and $36,000 in overtime, according to city payroll records cited by the Boston Globe — was charged after a 3 a.m. Sunday altercation at his son Joseph's West Roxbury apartment. The Police Officer Standards and Training Commission suspended Loewen's law enforcement certification on Wednesday, leaving him on administrative desk duty. Officers need active certification to exercise arrest powers.

According to the police report, officers responding to a fight found Loewen and his 25-year-old son "on the floor in a wrestling position." The son was "highly intoxicated, irate, and uncooperative" with police. Loewen, who sustained facial injuries, left without speaking to officers.

A 43-year-old woman at the apartment — her relationship to the Loewens unclear in the report — told officers the dispute started over a spare key and turned physical. Joseph Loewen later told police he and his father had been drinking at West Restaurant Saturday night, had a heated phone argument about the key, and that his father let himself into the apartment. Joseph said his father struck him in the face, head, and body and bit him on the chest during the struggle. Joseph admitted punching his father several times, drawing blood. Mark Loewen allegedly kicked and damaged his son's bedroom door before taking a set of keys and leaving.

The son's roommate told officers he tried breaking up the fight and that Mark Loewen bit him on the arm. Police photographed visible bruising on the roommate's arm and bruising and a laceration on the son.

Loewen made headlines in 2001 when he fatally shot 21-year-old Justin M. Ronchetti during a plainclothes drug investigation. Authorities said Loewen ended up on the hood of Ronchetti's vehicle clinging to the sunroof after the car sped toward officers, and fired during the encounter. He suffered a leg injury and was treated at a hospital.

Meanwhile, in Missouri, Eldon police detective Luke Gatlin pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI after a February traffic stop, according to ABC17News.com. Court documents show Gatlin blew a .193 blood alcohol concentration at the scene — more than double the legal limit — and a second test came back at .16. His penalty: a $640.50 fine and court costs.

And in Ohio, two suspects tied to an alleged terror plot targeting the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House South Lawn pleaded not guilty in federal court. Tycen C. Proper, 19, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, face conspiracy charges along with six others. The plot was reportedly uncovered after Proper's mother contacted authorities over her son's $3,000 firearms shopping spree and overheard him discussing "hit-and-run" missions. Proper's attorney Joseph Patituce reminded the court that "Mr. Proper is protected by the presumption of innocence that is enshrined in our Constitution." Scaggs' attorney Eric Brehm claimed a "significant disconnection" between the allegations and his client, blaming "naivety, lack of sophistication, and judgment."

The question in the Loewen case is the same one that hangs over every officer-facing charge: does the machinery of accountability move as swiftly when the accused wears a badge as when they don't — or does it move swifter, to prove a point?