A 19-year-old Falmouth man rear-ended a sedan on his motorcycle, lied to the cops trying to help him, ran from an ambulance, and then tried to yank an officer's firearm from its holster — getting off one round before being subdued. That's the daily reality of policing that the press routinely buries beneath hand-wringing about police tactics.
Nathaniel Cronin crashed his motorcycle into a stopped sedan on Central Avenue in Seekonk just before 12:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Seekonk police. No serious injuries at the scene. Firefighters and EMTs showed up alongside police — standard protocol for a crash. Cronin was being medically evaluated in the back of an ambulance when officers discovered he'd fed them false information during the investigation.
Confronted with the lie, Cronin bolted from the ambulance. Officers chased him on foot and caught up with him near the corner of Edwards and Foch avenues. When they tried to arrest him, a physical struggle broke out.
That's where the real danger kicked in. Cronin grabbed an officer's gun and partially removed it from its holster, police said. One round was fired. Nobody was hit. Officers then gained control and took Cronin into custody.
Here's the framing gap worth watching: MassLive ran with the headline that Cronin was "grabbing officer's gun, firing shot" — implying the suspect himself discharged the weapon. Boston.com went with "one round was fired," a more passive construction that leaves open who pulled the trigger. Neither outlet's reporting, drawing from the same police statement, clarifies whose finger was on the trigger when the gun went off. That detail matters — and the fact that it's unclear is itself worth noting.
Cronin now faces a stack of charges: two felony counts of assault and battery with a firearm and assault and battery in an attempt to disarm a police officer, plus misdemeanor charges including assault and battery, trespassing, disturbing the peace, destruction of property, and resisting arrest, according to court records. He's set to be arraigned in Taunton District Court.
The sequence matters: a crash, a lie, a foot chase, a struggle, and a grab for a cop's weapon. Officers responded to a crash scene to help, got deception for their trouble, and ended up in a fight for a loaded gun. That's the job. And the public deserves the facts straight — not softened, not spun.
The open question: whose finger fired that round? The police statement doesn't say, and neither outlet pressed for the answer. In an era where every officer-involved discharge gets scrutinized, clarity on that point isn't optional — it's basic.
