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News
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Two Westport Officers Injured in I-95 Chase, Shooting
UPDATE Two Westport police officers were slightly injured today in a high-speed chase of a murder suspect on I-95 that ended with the suspect mortally shooting himself in the head after being stopped near the Norwalk-Darien line, police said.
Traffic along I-95 came to a standstill after police in Westport joined the southbound State Police chase of the suspect’s black pickup with Maine plates at Exit 18 in Westport at about 6 p.m. The chase, which at one point reached almost 90 miles per hour, ended near Exit 13 in Darien.
Neither of the officers’ injuries was said to be serious. One officer was bitten by a dog in the suspect’s vehicle, and the second suffered cuts when he broke a window in the vehicle. Both were treated at Norwalk Hospital, fellow officers said.
State Police were in charge of the investigation which they said involved a man wanted in a homicide in Maine who was accompanied in his vehicle by a female companion.
After their vehicle was stopped, the man reportedly refused to surrender and eventually shot and seriously wounded himself in the head, according to police. First reports had said the self-inflicted wound was fatal and early Monday he died at Norwalk Hospital, according to state police.
Maine State Police later identified the man as Eric Niles, 19, of Maine and Sunday night said he was in grave condition at Norwalk Hospital. They said the truck in which he was riding had been reported stolen.
Officers were interviewing the woman to determine whether she was a willing passenger or had been abducted, said Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J.Paul Vance.
Witnesses said the suspect locked himself in his car and police used billy clubs to smash the windows.
When a Westport officer reached inside the truck to retrieve the man’s gun after he shot himself, the suspect’s dog, a pit bull, bit the officer several times, police said.
The dog then jumped out of the vehicle and police had to use a Taser gun on the animal to subdue him, according to detectives.
Maine State Police said that Niles was wanted in connection with a suspicious death earlier today. They said Blake Michaud, 20, of Greenbush, Maine, was found dead at a home in Bradley. They described the death as suspicious.
The Maine authorities said Niles was riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by Kristin Cates, 18, of Bradley. Police said the home where Michaud’s body was found is Cates’ parents house.
Shortly before 9 p.m, the Department of Transportation said all southbound lanes of I-95 between Exits 14 and 13 in Norwalk were closed while police conducted their investigation.
The DOT said traffic was backed up for at least eight miles to Exit 19 in Southport.
At 9:27 p.m., it said the right and center southbound lanes remained closed. All lanes were reopened at about 10:45 p.m.
Comments: Comment Policy
My daughter and I witnessed parts of the high-speed auto chase and takedown of the suspect(s) last nite while returning home from Stamford. Traveling NB on I-95 in different cars, I first observed marked Darien police cars stopped on the roadway by exits 13 and 14, followed seconds later by more than a dozen police cruisers from Westport, Fairfield and the State Police. A moment later my daughter observed numerous officers exiting their cars with guns drawn, rushing towards a civilian vehicle while taking cover behind their cars. This unfortunate incident is a stark example that we here in Westport, as much as we might like to think otherwise, are not immune, to the maladies that afflict much of our society. One person dead in Maine, another apparently by his own hand, in Darien. One Westport officer injured when bitten by a pit bull, when attempting to retrieve a suspect’s gun. Another injured by flying glass. When I voted, as a member of the Bd of Finance, to authorize the use of escrowed funds to purchase tasers for our officers, it was with the recognition that we cannot seal ourselves off from such events. I was assured by Chief Al Fiore’s remarks to our board that our officers would have sufficient training and supervision to only use such weapons when absolutely justified. Yesterday’s incident, when fortunately another jurisdiction’s officers were able to use a taser, rather than discharging firearms, to subdue a pit bull which had already attacked a Westport officer, is vivid testament that there will be such occasions.
They tasered the dog, by the way. Furthermore, I can’t see how a guy who [allegedly] murders someone in Maine and then passes through Westport on I-95 on his way to being taken down a few towns down the road from Westport is supportive of the need for tasers in Westport (unless you have a few dogs in your neighborhood you’d like Westport’s finest to hit with the taser).
My concern with this case as well as the paintball incident is that our enforcement persons are not more aggressive. One (paintball) did nor return fire, face it that paintball was as good as a 44 shot, and in the second incident we have an innocent individual in the car and multiple outside the car (officers) within the gun of the idiot shooter in the car.
Officers MUST be comfortable to use lethal force in extreme situations as the two cited and need not have to decide beween a shock and force resulting in their personal endgame.
Tasers are important in non fatal confrontations where it is an easier decision
Taser supporters watch what you wish for
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