A Connecticut police officer who fatally shot a man as he tried to flee in a stolen vehicle while being attacked by a police dog was justified in using deadly force while inside the car, 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.
