LOWELL — A Lowell police sergeant is free on personal recognizance and on paid administrative leave after Pepperell police officers stunned him with a Taser at least three times as he allegedly resisted arrest on domestic charges at his Pepperell home this weekend.

Sgt. Vincent Fernandez, 42, was arrested early Sunday morning after he allegedly struck a female victim in the face, resisted arrest and threatened Pepperell police officers, according to Meghan Kelly, a spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

The alleged victim is Fernandez’s wife, whose identity was not released, according to WBZ-TV.

Officers went to Fernandez’s home Sunday about 12:51 a.m., in response to a 911 hang-up call, according to Kelly, who did not release the address of the home.

The female victim met police at the door of the home and allowed officers inside before telling them that Fernandez hit her in the face, Kelly said.

Kelly said Pepperell officers saw injuries around the victim’s eye when they spoke to her.

Pepperell police cannot comment on the arrest since the case is domestic in nature, according to spokesman John Guilfoil.

The couple’s two children were home at the time of the altercation, and one of them made the 911 call, according to a WBZ-TV report based on court documents filed in Ayer District Court.

“While Pepperell police were attempting to place the defendant into custody, he forcibly resisted the officers trying to detain him and made verbal threats to the officers,” Kelly wrote in an email. “The arresting officers used a Taser at least three times to subdue the defendant before placing him under arrest.”

Fernandez told Pepperell officers “you better have more than three cops here” when they attempted to arrest him, according to WBZ-TV.

Officers Tased Fernandez while attempting to place him in handcuffs, but Fernandez shook the Taser off and told the officers to Tase him again, according to WBZ-TV. After Fernandez was handcuffed, officers had to tase him again to get him into a police cruiser outside the home, according to WBZ-TV.

Fernandez had a black eye when he appeared Tuesday in Ayer District Court for arraignment on charges of assault and battery on a household or family member and resisting arrest.

Fernandez’s attorney told WBZ-TV that the altercation was mutual. He could not immediately be reached for comment by The Sun.

Judge Elizabeth Cremens released Fernandez on personal recognizance, but ordered him to have no contact with the victim, and to stay away from the victim and their home, according to Kelly.

Cremens also ordered Fernandez to surrender his firearms to police, to not consume alcohol, and to not possess any firearms while the case is pending, Kelly said.

Fernandez could not be reached for comment.

Lowell police Superintendent William Taylor said Fernandez was placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Taylor declined further comment.

Fernandez has been with the Lowell Police Department for 20 years, and was promoted to sergeant in late April during a ceremony at City Hall. He has twice earned the department’s second-highest honor — the Medal of Valor. He first got the award in 2008, for a May 16, 2007 incident in which he ran into a burning building on Central Street and helped get six people out safely.

Fernandez earned the award again in 2009, for his role in an April 16, 2008 incident in which he and another officer were credited with saving the life of a woman whose son raised a meat cleaver above his head as he prepared to slash her.

That man was shot by the officer who was with Fernandez on the call as Fernandez kept another man in the apartment out of the way. The suspect survived.

Fernandez is scheduled to return to Ayer District Court for a pre-trial hearing on Nov. 2, Kelly said.

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