A Fryeburg police officer was justified when he killed a Massachusetts man after a high-speed chase in January.
That’s the conclusion of investigators from the Maine attorney general’s office, which on Friday released its report into Officer Micheal St. Laurent’s fatal shooting of 52-year-old Kenneth Ellis.
Ellis was fleeing from police in Conway, New Hampshire, in a black Ford F-150 pickup truck on Jan. 30. St. Laurent learned that New Hampshire police were abandoning the pursuit as Ellis headed toward Maine, and St. Laurent and Oxford County sheriff’s Deputy Justin Groetzinger headed toward the state border to intercept him, according to the report.
Groetzinger spotted Ellis’ pickup truck and notified St. Laurent that Ellis was heading toward the Fryeburg police officer.
As St. Laurent began pursuing him, Ellis was speeding and weaving in and out of the oncoming lane in heavy traffic, the investigators wrote.
St. Laurent was about to abandon his pursuit as well when Ellis crashed into multiple vehicles and came to a stop in front of the Norway Savings Bank on Main Street in Fryeburg. Ellis hit a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado and a Ford Focus making left-hand turns into the parking lot of Nouria, a convenience store, before rear-ending a Subaru Outback and coming to a stop in a snowbank.
During the chase, Groetzinger crashed his Chevrolet Tahoe patrol vehicle into a Chrysler 300 on Main Street, critically injuring Danielle Hamalainen and her husband, Brandon Adjutant, both of Conway, New Hampshire, CBS affiliate WGME reported earlier this year.
Groetzinger suffered injuries not considered life-threatening.
St. Laurent then positioned his cruiser behind the driver’s side door of Ellis’ pickup truck before getting out, drawing his handgun and ordering Ellis to get out with his hands up, according to investigators.
Ellis didn’t comply, and St. Laurent told investigators he saw Ellis “digging” around in the center console or the passenger side. At this point, St. Laurent began to back up because he was unsure whether Ellis was looking for a weapon.
Ellis then “flung open” the door to his truck and got out in an “aggressive manner” with a knife in hand. The report described the knife as having a blade more than 4 inches long.
As St. Laurent and witnesses told investigators, Ellis began approaching St. Laurent faster than the officer could back away. While he backed away, St. Laurent told Ellis to drop the knife.
When Ellis came within 10 feet of him, St. Laurent shot Ellis, telling investigators that he “feared Mr. Ellis was going to kill him.”
Despite receiving first aid, Ellis died at the scene.
The Maine medical examiner’s office determined Ellis died from multiple gunshot wounds, and a toxicology test found he had fentanyl and methadone in his system, according to the report.
Investigators wrote that St. Laurent “reasonably believed” that Ellis posed an “imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death,” noting that Ellis was “quickly advancing” on the officer and had “refused repeated commands to stop.”
“All the facts and circumstances point to the conclusion that Officer St. Laurent reasonably believed he was acting in defense of himself at the time he used deadly force,” the investigators concluded.
The Maine attorney general’s office investigates all cases of state, county and local police using deadly force.
