A Naugatuck police officer was justified in firing three shots at a motorist who fled after a traffic stop in September, a state report released Monday concluded.
The incident occurred on Sept. 14 on an on-ramp to Route 8 when Det. Kevin Zainc stopped an orange 2019 Dodge Charger driven by Roznovsky Machado after Zainc witnessed what he thought was a drug transaction involving someone in the Charger.
After Sgt. Nicholas Kehoss arrived to assist Zainc, Machado put the Charger in reverse then accelerated forward, striking a marked police vehicle and pushing it into Kehoss, knocking him down as it drove away, according to the report issued by Inspector General Robert J. Devlin Jr.
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Kehoss fired three times, hitting the car but not Machado. The shooting was justified because Kehoss believed he was facing death or serious injury and that it “was the only readily available feasible means to defend himself from the threat that he faced,” the report concluded.
Machado turned himself in a few days later and was charged with attempted assault, according to the report.
