In a wild scene which played out on a busy commercial stretch of a roadway during the afternoon commute, West Hartford police say an officer fatally shot a car theft suspect from inside a vehicle being stolen.
The officer and his K-9 partner had been caught in the vehicle as they tried to make an arrest, according to West Hartford Police Chief Vernon Riddick, who spoke at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
A car and foot chase led up to the fatal incident. Riddick says it was just before 5 pm Tuesday when officers were chasing a stolen car carrying two men on New Britain Ave. After officers deployed "stop sticks," the car crashed near South St. Both men tried to get away on foot. Officers quickly arrested one of them, Lyle Solsbury, 47, of West Hartford, a felon, at a nearby Meineke.
The second man ran off to Town Fair Tire, where he stole another car, according to police. An officer found him there and released his K-9 partner into the vehicle. The officer followed and tried to make the arrest, but got caught in the car as it careened off.
Riddick says the car crashed into a police cruiser and another vehicle on New Britain Ave. He says the officer, pleading with the driver to stop, opened fire. The wounded driver crashed into a telephone pole. CPR was performed on the suspect, who died later at the hospital. His name has not been released.
The officer, whose name has also not been released, suffered non-life-threatening head injuries and a rib injury. He's on administrative leave. The state Inspector General's office is investigating, as it does when police are involved in shootings.
Solsbury is charged with auto theft, conspiracy to commit auto theft and interfering with an officer. He's being held on a $250,000 bond. A state database shows that Solsbury has several convictions, the latest in 2019 for 6th-degree larceny. He was sentenced to three years in prison. The same database shows a long list of pending cases for Solsbury on a variety of charges, including a prior auto theft charge.
