Officer injured, threatened after man drove into his cruiser

Norwich police say suspect then drove to department and struck more vehicles

A Norwich police officer suffered minor injuries after a man intentionally drove into the side of his cruiser Tuesday, police said.

The officer, who was not identified, was sitting in his marked patrol vehicle before 7 a.m. when Roland Euell, 29, drove into the front passenger side of the car, police said. According to police, Euell got out of his car and threatened to shoot the officer, who remained in his cruiser, before getting back in his car and driving off.

Police found Euell and tried to stop him, but Euell drove to the back parking area of the Norwich Police

Department, where he struck both personal and police vehicles before his own car became disabled, police said.

Police charged Euell with second-degree assault with a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, assault of a public safety officer, second-degree threatening, first-degree criminal mischief and reckless endangerment as well as several motor-vehicle charges. He was held on bond and scheduled to appear Feb. 10.

The officer was taken to Backus Hospital for minor injuries. Police said no weapon was found.

The incident is the latest in a spate of attacks on police officers in Connecticut in the past few months.

In a December incident in Hartford, a woman tried to stab a Hartford detective who was with two members of the Hartford Police Regional Auto Theft Task Force, having a stolen car towed away, police said. Surveillance video shows the woman running toward the officers with a large knife in her hand, pointed toward the detective’s head and neck. The detective appeared to step out of the way while grabbing her and flinging her to the street. The woman and the detective suffered minor injuries, police said.

At the end of October another Hartford officer was attacked, this time by a man she was trying to help.

The officer, who was parked in a Main Street parking lot at 1:30 a.m., called an ambulance for the man, who she suspected was intoxicated or in need of medical help. Without provocation, police said, the man drew a gun and fired through the driver’s side window of the police car, narrowly missing her.

Just days after the Hartford officer was reportedly shot at, a Norwich officer was responding to a report of shots fired, when a man with a rifle began shooting at his cruiser, police said. Investigators reportedly counted at least seven bullet holes in the front of the cruiser and through its windshield, including several near the driver’s seat, where the officer had been moments earlier, police records show.