The Connecticut Office of Inspector General released a report Monday concluding that an Orange police officer acted recklessly and should no longer be allowed to serve as a cop after he opened fire on a vehicle fleeing a shoplifting incident in 2023.
Officer Eric Ristaino of the Orange Police Department told investigators that he fired one shot at the driver’s side headrest after briefly chasing the vehicle on foot as it left the Burlington Coat Factory parking lot and approached Boston Post Road with fellow Officer Kurt Correia trapped inside on Sept. 15, 2023, according to the report. The shot missed and hit the rear taillight of the 2004 Buick Century before the driver eventually pulled over. No one was struck by gunfire.
Inspector General Robert Devlin Jr. detailed his findings on the shooting in a 44-page report which concluded that Ristaino’s use of deadly force was not reasonable and “therefore not justifiable.” Devlin declined to bring a prosecution against the officer, however, citing “insufficient evidence” and a slim chance of convicting him in criminal proceedings. He noted that the investigation was hindered by Ristaino and Correia failing to activate their body cameras.
“Officer Ristaino faced a situation where Officer Correia was effectively being kidnapped by thieves who had turned a shoplifting incident into a robbery by using force in an attempt to escape,” Devlin wrote. “He made a split-second decision to address this situation. It was a dangerous and unreasonable decision; and one that a competent police officer would not make.”
“However, given the lack of impartial video evidence and the requirement that the state prove any criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt, I believe that there is insufficient evidence to sustain the state’s evidentiary burden,” Devlin wrote.
According to the report, officers were dispatched to the Burlington Coat Factory at 80 Boston Post Road at 9:50 p.m. Sept. 15, 2023, on the report of a shoplifting. The caller alleged someone took “a whole bunch of merchandise” from the store without paying and was seen heading behind the store with a second individual.
Correia was the first officer on the scene and spotted a man, later identified as Maurice Keys, holding a laundry basket of items and running through the parking lot, the report said. Keys tried to give the basket to a woman, later identified as Timisha Hopkins, who was in a Buick Century before he ran through the lot and double-backed to the Buick, according to the report.
Hopkins moved from the passenger seat to the driver seat before Keys dove into the passenger seat with Correia following behind, the report said. Correia tried to pull Keys out of the vehicle.
According to Correia’s report on the incident, Keys allegedly grabbed his arm and pulled him into the vehicle before Hopkins allegedly grabbed his wrist. Ristaino arrived at the scene around this time and parked his cruiser behind the Buick.
According to Correia’s report, he looked up and saw Ristaino at the driver’s side door trying to get in and stop Hopkins from starting the vehicle. Despite telling Hopkins not to start the car, Correia alleged that she pushed his wrist away from the ignition.
Ristaino wrote in his report on the incident that he sprang into action so fast to help that he did not have time to activate his body camera. He alleged that he saw Correia involved in a “violent struggle” with Keys before Hopkins started the vehicle despite him yelling “don’t do it” several times, Ristaino wrote. Ristaino unsuccessfully tried to break the window to stop Hopkins from driving away, his report said.
Hopkins then backed up and struck Ristaino’s police cruiser before driving forward over a curb and toward the exit of the parking lot, Devlin’s report said. With the passenger door open and his legs partially outside of the vehicle, Correia alleged that he “attempted to radio that I was being held in the Buick and that the suspects were holding me, not allowing me to exit the vehicle.”
As the vehicle approached Boston Post Road, Correia said he realized that a woman was in the backseat of the vehicle screaming, the report said. He alleged that his dominant arm was still being restrained, which prevented him from grabbing his gun.
“It was at this moment that I no longer cared about stopping the shoplifting or apprehending the suspects, but I was fearful for my life,” Correia wrote in his report.
In the next few moments, Correia said he was able to pull his legs into the vehicle and that he heard a pop shortly thereafter. He said he was not sure whether the sound was gunfire or stop sticks being used on the Buick, he wrote in his report.
“I shouted to Keys and Hopkins that they were kidnapping a police officer and that they needed to stop the vehicle,” Correia wrote.
According to Ristaino’s report, he chased the vehicle on foot after it struck a curb in the parking lot and headed for the highway. He described the vehicle as driving erratically with the passenger door wide open, leading him to believe there was still a struggle going on between Correia and Keys.
Ristaino said he drew his gun as he chased the car and used his other hand to radio in that a vehicle was fleeing with an officer trapped inside, his report said.
“I feared that Officer Correia was at an imminent risk of sustaining serious bodily injury or death if Ms. Hopkins was not stopped and continued to drive off with Officer Correia still trapped inside,” Ristaino wrote.
Ristaino said he was somewhere between 10 to 25 yards away from the Buick when he slowed down and pointed his gun at the driver’s side headrest, where he fired one round, he wrote in his report. He said he quickly realized the shot had missed when he did not see the rear windshield shattered.
Ristaino said he radioed in “shots fired, shots fired” before the Buick turned right onto Boston Post Road.
After the shot was fired, Correia said he was able to draw his taser with his left hand and shouted out that Keys and Hopkins would be tasered if they did not let go of his right arm, his report said. Hopkins released the officer’s wrist while Keys allegedly began to struggle for the taser, which led to Correia telling both of them that he would draw his gun and shoot them if his taser was taken, he wrote in his report.
According to Correia’s report, Hopkins said she would stop the vehicle and began to slow down before he felt the vehicle speed up quickly. He said he told her again someone would be killed if she did not stop before she pulled the vehicle over in the right lane on the eastbound side of the road.
Hopkins was removed from the vehicle by Ristaino. Correia said Keys was removed from the vehicle with help from a third officer who arrived at the scene, according to his report. Keys was brought to the ground with help from a fourth officer who arrived before Ristaino used his taser on Keys until he was handcuffed, the report said.
Keys and Hopkins were both arrested and charged in connection with the shoplifting and assault on an officer, Devlin wrote. The woman in the back of the vehicle was not charged.
According to Devlin’s findings, Correia in his report did not address why his body camera was not activated during the incident. Devlin noted that this complicated the investigation, as the accounts given by Hopkins and Keys were vastly different from what Correia described inside the vehicle.
According to Devlin’s report, Keys started his interview with investigators in May by saying “I was wrong. I admit that I was wrong. Like 100%.” As he described his account of what happened he acknowledged that he shoplifted from the store and resisted arrest, but he did not say he grabbed Correia’s arm, Devlin wrote.
Keys said he grabbed Correia’s taser and pointed it up when he drew the weapon, but at that point, he said he realized “this was going too far” and told Hopkins to “stop the car, just stop it,” the report said. Once she did, Keys said he tried to willingly get out of the vehicle but was forcibly removed and tasered.
According to Devlin’s report, Keys allegedly acknowledged that he had been drinking alcohol before the incident and that Hopkins and the other woman were doing drugs. While speaking to investigators, Devlin noted that Keys incorrectly believed the gunshot was fired after Hopkins stopped the car.
Hopkins was interviewed by investigators with Devlin’s office in August. She told authorities she tried driving away “out of fear” and in an attempt to “get them out of the situation,” according to Devlin’s report.
As Hopkins left the parking lot she said she allegedly saw Correia with either a taser or a gun that he “pointed back-and-forth” at her and Keys, the report said. She alleged that Keys and the officer “were tussling, but it wasn’t forceful fighting because the officer was waving” his weapon around.
Hopkins said she could hear two gunshots go off as she turned right onto Boston Post Road, the report said. She said at that point Keys told her to “stop the car before they kill us for no reason.”
Hopkins said she stopped the vehicle shortly thereafter.
Noting that without body camera footage of the incident in the vehicle, it would be impossible to tell exactly what happened, Devlin said the investigation focused on the “material facts.” The only available footage of the incident came from police cruiser dashcams and surveillance from Burlington Coat Factory, though much of the incident was not captured.
The investigation was assisted by detectives with the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad who processed the scene of the officer-involved shooting. Detectives allegedly found “many items of suspected stolen property and drug paraphernalia” in the Buick, according to the report. They also found that the shot Ristaino fired struck the trunk and was stopped by a duffel bag full of clothes.
In his analysis of the shooting, which Devlin described as “reckless” and “extremely poor decision-making” on Ristaino’s part, he noted that the shot could have struck the backseat passenger, Keys or Correia had it not been stopped by the bag full of clothes. Devlin also said that had the shot hit its intended target, it would have killed Hopkins or left her incapacitated, leading to a driverless vehicle heading toward Boston Post Road and endangering everyone inside, including the officer.
“Connecticut has a policy that generally prohibits the discharge of a firearm into or at a moving motor vehicle,” Devlin noted.
“There were available reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force,” he continued.
Devlin said he believes Ristaino could have gotten into his cruiser and pursued the Buick or radioed for backup to stop the vehicle.
“Such conduct demonstrated incompetence in the performance of police functions such that he should no longer be certified as a police officer,” Devlin wrote.
Devlin said he referred his findings to the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council and recommended the council revoke Ristaino’s certification to serve as an officer.
Ristaino remains on administrative leave pending an internal review of the incident, according to Robert Gagne, chief of the Orange Police Department.
“The Orange Police Department has received a report and findings of the State of Connecticut Office of the Inspector General regarding a use of force incident on September 15, 2023,” Gagne said in a statement. “We respect the responsibility that the Office of the Inspector General holds in conducting these investigations.”
Gagne added that Devlin’s report “speaks for itself.”
