What began with shotgun blasts toward some workers from a tree service ended, some hours later, with a Napanoch man being taken out of his home and into the custody of Ulster County sheriff’s deputies said.
According to deputies, at about 11 a.m. last Friday, March 20, deputies responded to a 911 call for shots fired in the area of Sholam Road near the intersection with Woodland Avenue in Napanoch. Deputies said initial reports stated that a man, later identified as Lucas V. Robey, 56, of Napanoch, had left his home and fired a shotgun twice “in the general vicinity of nearby workers from a tree service.” Robey then, deputies said, went back inside his house and refused to come out to speak with them.
That brought the county’s Emergency Response Team and Crisis Negotiation Team into the situation, which over the next several hours, deputies said, tried and failed to make contact with Robey. He was, deputies said, “ultimately taken into custody” after the Emergency Response Team entered the home and was taken to HealthAlliance Hospitals of the Hudson Valley’s Broadway Campus for evaluation.
Charges were not immediately specified by deputies, but they did say an “extreme risk protective order” was obtained to prevent Robey from possessing any firearms, pending a hearing.
Deputies were assisted by state police, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, the Ellenville Rescue Squad, Mobile Life Support Services and the Napanoch Fire Department.