– Forty-two-year-old
Richard Klementovich, a Clifton, N. J. police officer and Gulf War veteran, is
charged with multiple counts of attempted criminal homicide following a daylong
standoff on Sunday at his estranged wife’s home on Bittersweet Drive in
Doylestown Township.
Police say they
counted over 118 shots fired from the home into three responding police
vehicles and one neighbor’s car on the street. It all started with a 911 call
that police say Klementovich made from the home where he was alone.
“He called and
requested an officer out there for a civil dispute,” said acting Police Chief
Dean Logan.
The first officer
responding found a note on the driveway that indicated Klementovich had 2000
rounds of ammunition and that he was a police officer. Gunfire erupted after
the officer backed his car away.
“I first thought it
was fireworks,” said neighbor Lisa Gervais. She also explained that police
called and told her to stay in her home with the windows and blinds closed.
Others who had been
out on Father’s Day could not return to their neighborhood until early Monday
morning. This was hours after police say Klementovich surrendered through a
second story window, helped in part by Clifton, N. J. police.
Behind the
Klementovich home are flattened trees and torn up lawns leftover from the
armored vehicles that surrounded the home. The State Police Bomb Squad, county
SWAT team and surrounding police departments all responded.
The Klementovich
couple, who have two children, are in the middle of a divorce that was filed
last October. Police responded to a domestic call here last November. No action
was taken, but Clifton police were notified.
No motive was given
for Sunday’s incident, but police say Klementovich was prepared for a fight.
“He had high-powered
assault rifles. He was dressed in tactical equipment,” said chief Logan.
A Doylestown Borough
officer was treated for injuries from concrete kicked by a bullet.