A 29-year-old took a military vehicle for a joyride, causing property damage and injuring an officer in the process, according to a statement from the Utica Police Department.
At around 2:20 a.m. on April 29, Utica Police units were notified by a security officer at the Alexander Pirnie Federal Building of a possible stolen military vehicle.
The security officer advised he had witnessed a suspicious male walking in the area, and while viewing surveillance footage noticed that a large military style vehicle that was parked adjacent to 221 Oriskany Street was missing. Upon reviewing the footage he noticed that the male had entered the vehicle and driven it away.
After learning of this information, officers eventually located the vehicle on West Street and attempted to conduct a stop, police said.
The operator failed to comply with the stop and initially started backing up and going forward slowly, until it accelerated quickly toward the officers who had to maneuver their vehicles and themselves out of the way in an effort to not be struck.
The vehicle then proceeded southbound on West Street and made a turn westbound on South Street, then took a left southbound on Genesee Street.
Once on the 200 block of Genesee Street, the vehicle continued southbound until it struck a utility pole and a fire hydrant, severing both, and causing significant damage to 287 Genesee Street, authorities said.
Throughout this process, officers attempted to stop the vehicle, with one attempting to smash out the driver side window in an effort to get the vehicle to stop.
As this was occurring the operator fled at a high rate of speed causing the officer to be ejected off the vehicle, causing injury to the officer, who was transported to Wynn Hospital for treatment.
The truck continued southbound on Genesee Street, driving recklessly across all lanes of travel, through Oneida Square, and ultimately onto the 1600 block of Genesee Street, where it struck a tree causing the vehicle to finally be so damaged it could no longer be operated.
Officers then climbed upon the vehicle again and attempted to break the windows to extract the driver. After several moments the driver opened the door and exited the truck, with officers struggling to take him into custody, authorities said.
During this encounter another officer was injured, suffering significant injury to his hand and wrist.
The man was finally taken into custody and transported to the Utica Police Department. Once there, his identity was determined to be Daniel Passino-Brazeau, 29, of no known address.
Due to the damage caused by Passino-Brazeau, portions of Genesee Street required closure, and as of early afternoon on April 29, Dakin Street to South Street in both directions are still closed due to extensive debris in the roadway.
Passino-Brazeau was charged with two counts of second-degree assault, third-degree grand larceny, driving while intoxicated, unlawful fleeing a police officer, and numerous NYSV&TL violations.
Police say additional charges are likely as the investigation continues
Both officers were treated and released from Wynn Hospital. The officer who suffered head and body injuries was placed out of work for a period of time.
“We would like to acknowledge the great proactive identification by the security officer at the Federal Building for immediately notifying of the vehicle theft, as well as the great work of our officers and supervisors for coordinating safe traffic lanes by leapfrogging the pursuit to block side streets so that no innocent vehicular or pedestrian traffic would enter the path of the incident,” Utica police officials said in a statement. “Due to size of the vehicle and the actions of the offender we are very grateful that no innocent lives were at serious risk during the entirety of the encounter.”
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica Police pursue stolen military vehicle, officers injured
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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