BRISTOL, Conn. — The actions of a Bristol police officer shooting at a suspect stealing a police cruiser in January 2023 are justified, the Office of the Inspector General concluded.
There were some initial doubts, the IG said, as the investigation had to determine whether the fact the suspect was in a moving vehicle when shot and whether the shooting officer was in immediate danger would diminish the justification of the officer's use of deadly force.
On the morning of Jan. 12, 2023, Bristol police responded to a report of a carjacking suspect heading from Farmington toward Bristol.
Police found the stolen vehicle in a parking lot on Davis Drive. As police tried to confront Jimmie Shoemaker-Gonzalez, he got into a police cruiser. As the suspect was driving away, Officer Petzing fired four shorts at the driver's door. All four shots hit Shoemaker-Gonzalez; two in the leg and two in the thigh, the IG report states.
Shoemaker-Gonzalez eventually crashed into Palma's Diner on Stafford Street, according to the IG's report.
Lab tests conducted at the hospital after the crash found that Shoemaker-Gonzalez had drugs in his system, and interviews he had with police indicated he had PTSD and other mental health diagnoses, the report said.
Petzing said in a sworn statement he was in the path of the stolen cruiser and believed he would be run over. However, the IG saw in body cam footage that the cruiser was lined up with Petzing for only a moment and was not in a direct path toward Petzing.
“In that moment when the stolen cruiser appeared to line up toward Officer Petzing, things were certainly tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving. Under these circumstances, his split-second decision to fire to prevent being run over could be considered reasonable,” the IG concluded.
Shoemaker-Gonzalez was also accused of several other carjackings and carjacking attempts that morning in Hartford and at a condo complex in Farmington, where the suspect reportedly threatened and cut some of the victims with a knife.
The Inspector General concluded that the officer's use of a deadly weapon on the suspect was justified and will not take any more action in this investigation. Read the full Inspector General investigation report here.
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