Cape Cod man facing attempted murder charges after reportedly firing at police, putting knife to mother’s throat

A local man is facing several charges after a standoff on Wednesday.

According to police, at approximately 7:41 a.m., the Barnstable Police Department was called to a home on St. Francis Circle in Hyannis regarding an adult male holding his mother at knife point. As patrol units responded, the caller advised dispatch that he and his mother, and another female were able to barricade themselves in another room in the residence; however, the armed suspect also remained somewhere unknown inside the home.

Barnstable Police Patrol officers arrived on scene and were able to safely evacuate the family out a window of the home. The officers also immediately contained the suspect, 30-year-old Justin Moreira, inside his house. The family reported to the police that Moreira most likely had access to firearms inside the house.

The Cape Cod Regional SWAT Team was called to the scene and took over command of the incident.

Initial attempts to have Moreira come out of the home were unsuccessful. Shortly thereafter, he began firing on the SWAT team’s ballistic vehicle with a firearm. Fortunately, the vehicle protected the SWAT team members inside, as bullets ricocheted off the side of the armored truck.

On scene negotiators and the police department’s mental health clinician tried to convince Moreira to come out of the home peacefully, but he refused and continued to periodically fire rifle and handgun rounds on perimeter scene SWAT officers surrounding the house.

Later in the standoff, the Massachusetts State Police deployed a robotic dog inside the home in a further attempt to locate and convince Moreira to come out of the home, but he shot the robot and partially disabled it.

Throughout the day, Moreira continued to fire bullets at the SWAT personnel containing him in the St. Francis Circle home.

After seven hours of continual negotiations, Moreira still refused to come out of his home. The SWAT Team then deployed a form of pepper spray into the home, but Moreira remained inside. Finally, a specialty ballistic vehicle with an attached demolition tool arrived on scene and was used to forcibly encourage Moreira to exit the residence. He was then taken into custody without injury by the SWAT Team.

Justin Moreira is currently being held at the Barnstable Police Department.

Moreira is charged with several counts of Attempted Murder, as well as additional firearms charges.

He will be arraigned in Barnstable District Court on Thursday.

Moreira is well known to Cape Cod police.

The Barnstable Police Department thanked the responding local police and fire agencies, as well as the state police for their assistance in peacefully resolving this critical incident.