Connecticut Officer Cleared in Fatal 2019 Shooting of Teen Suspect

A court in Connecticut has cleared an officer with the Wethersfield Police Department of any wrongdoing in an incident that left an 18-year-old suspect dead of a gunshot wound.

According to The Mirror , Hartford (CT) State's Attorney Gail Hardy said that Officer Layau Eulizier acted as another objectively reasonable officer would act during the incident that ended in the shooting death of 18-year-old Anthony Jose Vega Cruz.

During the confrontation, Vega Cruz was wounded. He was transported to a nearby hospital where he died two days later.

"Officer Eulizier discharged his firearm in fear that the operator was about to run him over and that he would lose his own life. His belief that deadly force was needed to defend himself and others from the use or imminent use of deadly physical force was objectively reasonable," Hardy wrote in the decision.

Hardy's decision said further that had Vega Cruz waited, "this violation would have resulted in the issuance of a misdemeanor summons."

However, the offender fled the scene of the traffic stop "and engaged police in a brief pursuit, endangering the lives of innocent motorists, the police, as well as his passenger, Stephanie Santiago," Hardy concluded.