EAST BERNE — A man rammed his truck into a woman’s car and held her at gunpoint on the evening of Sept. 11, police say.

The Albany County Sheriff’s Department responded to the call from Pine Knoll Lane around 7:15 p.m., and investigated. Joseph T. Knightes, 21, of Schenectady, was involved in a domestic dispute with a woman, and during the incident had placed a 20-gauge shotgun under the woman’s chin, threatening to kill her, the arrest report says.
The woman escaped "during a lull in the immediate violence or threat," and fled to a neighbor’s house to call police, Lieutenant Michael Monteleone, with the sheriff’s department, told The Enterprise.

During their investigation, police also concluded that Knightes rammed his 1994 Ford pick-up into the woman’s car, and they found him in possession of a quantity of marijuana and cocaine, the arrest report says.
"The woman’s name has not been released by police," Monteleone told The Enterprise.

Knightes was arrested and processed at the Albany County Sheriff’s Department on the charges of second-degree criminal mischief, a felony; second-degree menacing, second-degree reckless endangerment, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance — all misdemeanors.

Knightes was also arrested for unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation.
Asked if Knightes had been using a controlled substance on the evening of the arrest, Monteleone responded, "He was not arrested for DWI." Monteleone added, "He was arrested for possession of a controlled substance"Whether or not he’d been using, I can’t say, but he was in possession."

Monteleone, who did not have Knightes’s criminal record at his disposal, said that he believed the two involved in the incident were a couple, but he did not know whether the woman had ever had an order of protection issued against Knightes.

Knightes was arraigned in the New Scotland Town Court before Judge Thomas Dolan, and was remanded to the Albany County Correctional Facility, pending a preliminary hearing in the town of Berne, the arrest report says.

Knightes did not answer calls from The Enterprise.