By Susan Haigh
Associated Press
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut police officer who fatally shot a man as he tried to flee in a stolen vehicle while being subdued by a K-9 was justified in using deadly force, according to a report issued Thursday by the state’s Office of Inspector General.
It was both “reasonable and justified” for West Hartford Officer Andrew Teeter to fire five rounds into the torso of Mike Alexander-Garcia on Aug. 8, 2023, to “defend himself and others from what he reasonably believed to be a threat of serious injury or death,” Inspector General Robert J. Devlin, Jr. wrote in the report.
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It was both “reasonable and justified” for West Hartford Officer Andrew Teeter to fire five rounds into the torso of Mike Alexander-Garcia on Aug. 8, 2023, to “defend himself and others from what he reasonably believed to be a threat of serious injury or death,” Inspector General Robert J. Devlin, Jr. wrote in the report.
Conn. Office of the Inspector General
The document comes four months after the family of Alexander-Garcia filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming Teeter, the West Hartford police and the town as defendants. It alleges violations of Alexander-Garcia’s constitutional rights, state laws and police policies and procedures.
The 2023 confrontation occurred during the evening rush hour on a busy local street in the Hartford suburb. Police had received a report of a stolen vehicle. They used tire-deflation devices to try and stop it, but the vehicle kept moving before eventually crashing. Alexander-Garcia, who was inside, abandoned the car, tried unsuccessfully to take two occupied vehicles before running into a nearby car service center and getting into a Toyota RAV4 with the keys in the ignition.
Teeter sent the K-9 into the vehicle through an open car window and ordered the dog to bite Alexander-Garcia. Teeter also got into the RAV4. But Alexander-Garcia, who began to drive off, ignored the bites, Teeter’s orders to stop and repeated threats to shoot and continued to drive away, the inspector general’s office determined.
The officer shot Alexander-Garcia while he was driving away recklessly, hitting Teeter’s cruiser, another vehicle and a stack of tires before crashing into a utility pole. Alexander-Garcia was treated at the scene and later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
The inspector general’s investigation determined it was “reasonable” for Teeter to deploy the dog and to get inside the vehicle himself.
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