Any person who shall make an assault or battery, or both, by knowingly and willfully either (1) striking, or (2) spraying with a noxious chemical, commonly used as a personal defense weapon, including Mace and an oleoresin capsicum product or like products, a uniformed member of the state police or metropolitan park police, environmental police officer, state properties patrol officer, probation and parole officers, state government case worker or investigator, judge of the supreme, superior, family, district court, traffic tribunal or municipal court, deputy sheriff, city or town police officer or firefighter, member of the capitol police, member of campus security force of state colleges and universities, member of the Rhode Island airport police department, member of the Rhode Island fugitive task force, Rhode Island public transit authority bus driver, or on-duty plainclothes member of the town, city, or state police force, investigator of the department of the attorney general appointed pursuant to § 42-9-8.1, or member of the railroad police after proper identification is displayed, or uniformed dog officer, or out-of-state police officer called into Rhode Island under a cooperative agreement to provide mutual aid at the request of the state of Rhode Island pursuant to chapter 37 of Title 42, or assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general, or employees of the department of environmental management responsible for administrative inspections or any constable authorized by chapter 45-16 of the Rhode Island general law causing bodily injury while the officer or official is engaged in the performance of his or her duty, shall be deemed to have committed a felony, and shall be imprisoned not exceeding three (3) years, or fined not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500), or both.

History of Section.
P.L. 1965, ch. 206, § 1; P.L. 1966, ch. 188, § 1; P.L. 1968, ch. 76, § 1; P.L. 1973, ch. 66, § 1; P.L. 1979, ch. 249, § 1; P.L. 1980, ch. 305, § 1; P.L. 1982, ch. 362, § 1; P.L. 1984, ch. 277, § 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 78, § 1; P.L. 1988, ch. 266, § 1; P.L. 1990, ch. 428, § 1; P.L. 1991, ch. 200, § 1; P.L. 1993, ch. 59, § 1; P.L. 1995, ch. 56, § 1; P.L. 1996, ch. 152, § 2; P.L. 1997, ch. 332, § 1; P.L. 1999, ch. 74, § 1; P.L. 1999, ch. 491, § 1; P.L. 2003, ch. 60, § 1; P.L. 2003, ch. 71, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 74, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 81, § 1; P.L. 2012, ch. 324, § 29.