MONTAGUE — An incident in which a man allegedly waved his gun at a convenience store clerk before leaving with his miniature Pinscher led police to the discovery of four illegal firearms, as well as ammunition at a Turners Falls home.
Daniel R. Masse, 40, of Turners Falls, has been charged with attempting to commit a crime; assault to rob with a firearm; carrying a firearm without a license; possessing ammunition without an firearms identification (FID) card; assault with a dangerous weapon; four counts of improperly storing a firearm; and four counts of possessing a firearm without an FID card.
Masse was arraigned in Greenfield Superior Court on Nov. 22, where he was appointed an attorney. He is due back Dec. 11 for a pretrial conference.
In the meantime, Masse is being held without the right to bail, having been deemed dangerous to the public. And following statements about “war” and people “from another place,” and an evaluation by a forensic psychologist, Masse will undergo treatment at Bridgewater State Hospital pending trial.
On Thursday, Nov. 21, Montague police responded to Scotty’s Convenience Store on High Street due to reports of an armed robbery having just taken place, court documents state.
According to the police report by Montague Police Detective Sgt. Joshua Hoffman, he arrived at the store to find the store’s clerk visibly shaken. The clerk described Masse as a known customer who approached her in the cash register area behind the counter and waved his gun so she could see it, before being confronted by another worker.
According to that other worker — witness names were redacted in court documents — he approached Masse and asked him what he was doing, before Masse said “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Masse then allegedly left the store without taking anything, wandering on foot with his “miniature Doberman type dog” and armed toward the neighborhood where he lives. Multiple Montague police officers, including Police Chief Christopher Williams, and Massachusetts State Police responded to secure the area, with State Police setting up a perimeter around Masse’s home on Wrightson Avenue.
Video surveillance footage viewed by police later confirmed the incident at Scotty’s did happen, according to court documents.
According to Hoffman’s police report, Masse was found and detained outside his home. Due to the reported existence of a firearm, Hoffman and Williams initiated a “protection sweep” of the Wrightson Avenue property after making contact with Masse’s mother, who lives in the home, at the door. Another female occupant also lives at the home, and was said to be sleeping when officers arrived, according to police.
With the house emptied of residents and Masse in custody, Hoffman and Williams entered the home to find it in “deplorable conditions,” according to Hoffman, with “trash and other items on almost every surface” and “walkways through the debris” to get to different rooms.
A handgun was found in plain sight “on top of debris” on the refrigerator, and Montague Police also discovered a shotgun leaning against a wall with multiple live shells on the floor, according to police.
Masse did at one point have a Massachusetts FID, but it expired in October 1999. Neither Masse’s mother or the other occupant of the house had ever legally been allowed to possess a firearm in the state, according to police.
A search warrant was obtained and the property was searched again that night, turning up two more improperly stored firearms, according to police.
The guns seized include a Ruger-type .22 caliber handgun — a replica gun of those used by soldiers of Nazi Germany, according to Hoffman — a Model 1895 Russian revolver, a 20 gauge Winchester shotgun and a single-shot 12 gauge shotgun. According to police, multiple rounds of ammunition and shotgun shells were found throughout the house, including on the floor.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.