B U F F A L O N E W S buffalonews.com
A Grand Island man faces charges that he lunged into a marked police car and assaulted a uniformed federal officer.
Ronald Wosilait, 40, appeared in federal court Friday after an incident at Whitehaven and West River roads Thursday morning. According to court papers, Border Patrol Officer William O’Brien was sitting in his marked police car when Wosilait walked up to the car and said, “This is my country, and I’m going to arrest you.”
Wosilait then lunged into the car toward O’Brien and attacked him, repeatedly punching him in the face, Assistant U. S. Attorney Maura O’Donnell said.
O’Brien pulled his gun on Wosilait, and some construction workers in the area assisted him in bringing the attacker under control, authorities said.
Wosilait suffers from serious psychiatric problems, his court-appointed attorney, Brian P. Comerford of the Federal Public Defenders office, told a judge.
O’Brien was treated at DeGraff Memorial Hospital for facial cuts, O’Donnell said.
U. S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. ordered Wosilait to be jailed until a detention hearing next week.