NEWPORT — An 80-year-old Newport man fired a handgun at his 48-year-old live-in caregiver earlier this month because he was jealous that she might have a new boyfriend, according to a police affidavit.
Kenneth Rickard allegedly fired at least two shots on July 1 at the woman in the driveway of his Springfield Road home, where she had been living in a storage room in the basement, the affidavit states. The caregiver was not harmed.
Rickard’s wife, Nancy, who at first struggled in a police interview to explain what work the caregiver did in the home, told authorities the woman helped Kenneth Rickard get up in the morning and took him for rides to the store, according to the three-page document. Kenneth Rickard is at times in a wheelchair or a power scooter; Nancy Rickard is in a wheelchair, the affidavit states.
Kenneth Rickard paid the caregiver in beer and cigarettes, Nancy Rickard told police, adding that she wasn’t keen on the woman being at the home and said she was supposed to be living in a camper.
The situation unfolded around 2 p.m. that day when the caregiver said she was helping Rickard into his Cadillac Escalade when he took a “Baby Browning” pistol out of the glove compartment, pointed it at her and “accused her of having a new boyfriend,” the affidavit states. She then started to run and he fired the gun, police said.
Rickard earlier this month pleaded not guilty to felony charges of reckless conduct with a deadly weapon and criminal threatening with a deadly weapon. He is being held without bail at the Sullivan County jail.
Kenneth Rickard initially told police that the caregiver, who had worked for him for four years, is a “liar” and that he allowed her to stay at the home for “too long” before he declined to comment further, according to the affidavit. Later on in the booking process, Rickard said his wife “should have just let him end it all and that they shouldn’t have trusted” the caregiver, and said things that an officer didn’t understand, the document said.
After the incident, Nancy Rickard, who was in the house at the time of the incident, said she was able to get the gun away from her husband and hid it while she waited for police to arrive. The gun had jammed during the shooting, the affidavit said.
Rickard and the caregiver were known to Newport police from a prior encounter in 2015, when authorities investigated what they called a “possible sexual assault” at the Hilltop Motel in Newport, the affidavit in Rickard’s new case states. The woman told police at that time that Rickard asked her to meet him at the motel so she could see a place for rent, but when she arrived, “he grabbed her and ripped off her pants,” according to the affidavit. She then stopped cooperating with police on the investigation, the affidavit said.
Rickard’s attorney, Gary Apfel, declined to comment on Thursday.
Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway said he was limited in what he could say about the court case.
However, Hathaway added: “The state is well aware of the age and condition of Mr. Rickard, which is a matter of concern for all as well as the conduct that brought him to the house of corrections.”
Hathaway said it would be “inappropriate” for him to comment on Rickard’s mental status or medical condition.
Phone and email messages left for Nancy Rickard weren’t returned.
The shooting on July 1 marked the second incident this year where an elderly man was accused of firing a weapon at another individual in Newport.
On May 7, 77-year-old George “Graham” Clarke, who suffers from dementia, allegedly shot and killed his 75-year-old wife, Margaret “Peggy” Clarke, inside the home they shared for decades, police said. He isn’t facing charges at this time because of “terminal cognitive and physical health issues,” the Attorney General’s Office has said.
Rickard has a dispositional conference scheduled for Aug. 15.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.