Officer recovering after being injured by gunfire from fellow officer
Click here for updates on this story
WATERBURY, CT (WFSB) — A police officer is recovering after being shot during an investigation in Waterbury on Tuesday afternoon.
The incident unfolded around 2 p.m. on Marley Place Tuesday afternoon, where officers were involved in an investigation into a stolen vehicle.
Officers had set up a surveillance in that area to capture a suspect accused in a New Britain kidnapping that happened the night before.
The suspect was being taken into custody when the officers noticed two SUVs nearby that were revving their engines and beginning to speed up Marley Place toward them.
Those two SUVs crashed into several police cruisers in the process.
At that time, one of the officers fired his weapon at the two vehicles in an effort to stop them.
One of the rounds struck Officer Charles Mauriello, a six-year veteran with the Waterbury Police Dept.
He had been shot in the chest and officers immediately attended to him, giving him CPR, before he was taken to the hospital.
The officer was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of the shooting.
Another officer who was in one of the cruisers that was struck was also taken to the hospital after suffering a concussion.
Wednesday afternoon, police said the officers have since been released from the hospital.
The suspects who drove at the officers in the SUVs, which were both reported stolen, sped away and appeared to have gone down East Main Street.
“An SUV, you could hear him coming up behind us, he came this close to my mirror, came storming past through,” said Sierra Fleury, an eyewitness.
Fleury, who is pregnant, said she found herself in the middle of the chaos.
“Had they hit my car at the speed they were going at, I could be in a completely different situation right now,” she said.
As the suspects fled, they struck at least three other cars on their way out.
A large police presence was later seen near the Waterbury–Oxford Airport on Christian Street, where police said three suspects allegedly involved in the shooting were taken into custody.
A fourth person, Robert Harrison who was wanted in connection with the New Britain kidnaping, was also taken into custody.
The identities of the suspects have not been released.
Connecticut State Police responded to assist and took over the investigation.
Cruisers from several towns, including Waterbury, Middlebury, Southbury, Naugatuck, and state police were seen in the area.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
