Police arrested a 29-year-old Rhode Island man by warrant last Wednesday following reports that he had texted his girlfriend, a New Canaan woman, in violation of a protective order, and later held a gun to her head and threatened to shoot.
Keith Duncan. Photo courtesy of the New Canaan Police Department
Keith Duncan of 131 Doyle Ave., Providence, was charged by New Canaan Police with second-degree threatening, second-degree harassment and criminal violation of a protective order, a felony offense.
Police on Providence had arrested Duncan on Aug. 21 in connection with the gun incident, according to a police report. Duncan also had made threats that he would use the gun at a college located less than 20 miles from where he lives, Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., the report said. Duncan was not a student at Roger Williams, according to Lt. Jason Ferraro of the New Canaan Police Department. Police in Bristol and Providence had been made aware of the incident and threats, as had the school, Ferraro said.
At about 1:55 p.m. on Sept. 2, state police came upon a motor vehicle accident that involved the girlfriend, and in the course of interviewing her, discovered that she had been made upset by the earlier incidents.
During the interview and subsequent investigation by New Canaan Police, authorities discovered that Duncan had been sending threatening text messages to the town woman going back as far as June, the report said.
New Canaan Police secured a warrant for their charges as a result of that investigation, and on Sept. 16 Duncan was extradited from a Cranston, R.I. Department of Corrections facility for processing here. He was scheduled to appear Sept. 17 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.
The terms of the criminal protective order were not immediately available, and the status of the relationship between Duncan and his girlfriend was not clear.
The New Canaan Domestic Violence Partnership has operated in New Canaan for more than 10 years. The Domestic Violence Crisis Center is “dedicated to the task of helping you and your children find ways to live your lives in peace, without the threat of violence, intimidation or abuse.” The DVCC can be reached 24 hours per day at 888-774-2900.