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‘Robot dog’ damaged by bullets during armed standoff in Barnstable, State Police say

A doglike robot was shot three times by a barricaded suspect in Barnstable. Police say it shows how the technology could save the lives of officers.

By Ross Cristantiello

March 27, 2024

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The Massachusetts State Police are highlighting the use of a “robot dog” that was damaged by multiple gunshots during a situation with an armed, barricaded suspect earlier this month. 

Around noon on March 6, troopers with the State Police Bomb Squad responded to 24 St. Francis Circle in Barnstable to assist a SWAT Team in handling the standoff. 

Police had initially been called because 30-year-old Justin Moreira was allegedly holding his mother at knife point. As the situation developed, Moreira allegedly fired at officers with a rifle. 

Troopers deployed two remote PackBot 510 reconnaissance robots and a doglike SPOT robot developed by Boston Dynamics. State Police have nicknamed the latter “Roscoe.” Their goal was to locate Moreira in the home, and they used the robots to systematically check the premises and the inside of the building, police said. 

As the SPOT unit checked the basement, Moreira “suddenly appeared from a bedroom armed with a rifle,” police said. 

Moreira knocked the robot dog over and began ascending the stairs up from the basement. SPOT units have a “self-righting” function, police said, which Moreira did not realize. The robot got back on its feet and a trooper directed it up the stairs behind Moreira. When he realized, Moreira knocked the SPOT unit over again, according to police.

Troopers saw him raising a rifle and pointing it in the robot’s direction before they lost communications with the SPOT unit, police said.

They later found that the robot dog had been hit by bullets three times by Moreira, police said. 

He also tried to shoot one of the PackBot units outside a sliding door, but missed and instead struck an above-ground pool with gunfire, police said. 

Throughout the seven-hour standoff, Moreira continued to periodically fire bullets toward police. After negotiation attempts failed, “a specialty ballistic vehicle with an attached demolition tool arrived on scene and was used to forcibly encourage Moreira to exit the residence,” Barnstable Police said at the time. This involved the use of tear gas, according to State Police. Moreira was taken into custody shortly after. 

The disabled SPOT unit was left in the basement until officials finished documenting the scene. It was then brought to Boston Dynamics so that the company could remove the bullets and assess the damage. 

“The company has expressed an interest in keeping Roscoe for research, and the process of replacing him with a new SPOT platform is underway,” State Police said in a release Wednesday. 

Police said that the incident shows how cutting-edge robotics can be used to protect officers on the job.

“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,” State Police said.