By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to a Rossmore St. residence late last Saturday on reports of an unknown male in the backyard with a can of gas.

Upon arrival, the officers immediately smelled a strong odor of gasoline and proceeded into the driveway leading to the backyard.

At that moment, a man, later identified as James King, was seen walking out and the odor of gasoline became stronger.

Officers asked King if he lived there and he stated that he was sleeping in the backyard and was just then leaving. He reportedly said he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend who lived around the corner but could not provide an address.

King then changed his story and said he was with a friend and were there to get a motorcycle out of the backyard.

Police was able to confirm from the reporting party that the motorcycle belonged to her boyfriend and he was not supposed to have it. She stated that she was in her apartment when she began to smell a strong odor of gasoline in the apartment.  She went into the hallway and saw her neighbor yelling at King that he wasn’t supposed to be there and to get out.

The reporting party then watched King go outside and take the can of gas that was right next to the door located in the rear of the driveway and begin to fill her boyfriend’s motorcycle. She then called the Somerville Police Department.

As officers were talking with King, they noticed that he kept putting his hand in his right pocket. They asked him multiple times to leave his hand out of his pocket for officer safety. He reportedly put his right hand in front of his right pocket to try and conceal what he had in his pocket. The officers could see in plain view the top of a large clear plastic shopping bag with a clear plastic sandwich bag inside.

In the sandwich bag, the officers could see large white pills sticking out of his pocket still in the bag. The officers took the shopping bag out of King’s right pocket and found three separate clear plastic sandwich bags all filled with big white oblong shaped pills.

The officers asked King what they were and he stated Johnnies. From their collective training and experience, they knew that Johnnies referred to Gabapentin.

The large number of pills individually wrapped in three separate packages are consistent with street level drug distribution.  They were counted back at the station and it was determined that each of the three bags contained 100 Gabapentin pills.

The officers checked the backdoor where King had gone into the building and noticed that the door was shut and was locked. The door led into a common hallway with three separate apartments on the rear side. The reporting party stated that King was not supposed to be there even, though he claimed to know a friend in the building.

King was subsequently placed under arrest on charges of felony nighttime breaking and entering, and possession of a class E drug to distribute.