Stephen Nichols says he was talking with a friend at a local restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard when the subject of the local school resource officer came up. Nichols was upset that the officer, in his opinion, was “leaving his post” by going to get coffee at a nearby convenience shop instead of remaining on campus to protect students, and said that somebody could “shoot up the school” in the officer’s absence. Based on nothing more than that simple remark, Nichols’ life was turned upside down and the Tisbury police have a lot of questions to answer.
Nichols said the waitress made a complaint to Tisbury Police about what she overheard and on the strength of that, Saloio and another officer relieved Nichols of his crossing guard duties while he was in the midst of performing them and subsequently drove to his home and took away his firearms license and guns.
“He came up and told me what I said was a felony but he wasn’t going to charge me,” Nichols said of Saloio.
The confiscated guns were later turned over to Nichols’ son-in-law, Nichols told The Times.
Asked if he was given a letter or any paperwork for the seizure of his license, Nichols said, “No he just told me to hand it over so I took it out of my wallet and handed it to him.”
