Driver jailed after report of gun threat

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

DEERFIELD - A Florida man was in custody on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon after state police pulled him over for speeding on I-91 north Monday afternoon.

According to state police Sgt. Michael Popvics, at 1:55 p.m., Trooper Thomas Moriarty, of the Northampton barracks, stopped a 2007 Chevy Cobalt driven by Donald W. Rowand, 69, of McAltin, Fla., for traveling 87 mph in a 65-mph zone.

Shortly after Rowand was pulled over, Popvics said, a motorist passing the Deerfield traffic stop called state police to warn them that the driver of the stopped vehicle had pointed a gun at them as they traveled north through Whately.

"As he was pulling the vehicle over someone called us to say, #You should be careful, the driver of that car was just pointing a handgun at me,'" Popvics said.

After Moriarty asked Rowand to step out of the vehicle, an inventory search uncovered a pellet gun replica of an actual handgun near the front seat.

Rowand was arrested and Popvics said he was being held on $1,000 cash bail at the Hampden County House of Corrections. He is expected to be arraigned this morning in Greenfield District Court.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com