An off-duty Rhode Island cop shot an 18-year-old driver Wednesday, in an incident that’s under investigation by several law enforcement agencies.
Surveillance footage shows Pawtucket Police Officer Daniel Dolan’s white pickup truck follow a black Audi into a pizzeria parking lot in West Greenwich before he gets out and appears to wave a gun at the car.
But the footage, obtained by WPRI 12 News, doesn’t show the moment Dolan allegedly fired a single-shot from his gun, striking the teen driver in the arm. It was his police firearm, WJAR reported.
Dolan was trying to “detain” the driver, authorities said, but they haven’t said why – and they haven’t said what led the officer to fire a shot at the teen in the car. A passenger reportedly wasn’t injured.
The officer first encountered the Audi on Interstate 95 and followed it to Wicked Good Pizza before he “attempted to detain” the driver, according to a statement from the state attorney general, Rhode Island State Police and West Greenwich Police Department.
“I believe the officer saw something on I-95 that was bad and followed, but that’s under investigation,” West Greenwich’s Chief Richard Ramsay said, according to WPRI.
In the surveillance footage, the Audi makes a right turn into the lot, its signal on and appears to be making a U-turn back toward the road when the truck zooms in behind it and pulls alongside it blocking the car’s path.
When the truck’s driver pops out, he’s in a cap and plain clothes. He leaves the door open and reaches for his belt and appears to show a gun and another object as the Audi kicks it into reverse and backs toward the road.
The man with the gun follows the car out of frame. Fifteen seconds, later, the man jogs back into frame, into the truck and then backs the truck out of the lot.
Dolan is now on leave from Pawtucket Police Department, The Providence Journal reported, quoting a statement from Pawtucket’s Chief Tina Goncalves.
“The Pawtucket Police Department is waiting for further information on the investigation,” Goncalves said, according to the Journal.
The driver was taken to Rhode Island Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, authorities said. He wasn’t identified.