By Heather Morrison
masslive.com

WORCESTER, Mass. — “Let me get out,” a Worcester police officer begged as the motive force accelerated by means of Main Street site visitors. The passenger was grabbing for the officer’s gun and pepper spray, making a chaotic and harmful wrestle contained in the shifting automotive, physique digicam footage reveals.

“That was a very, very life-threatening situation the officer was put in,” Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier stated of the Jan. 16, 2026, incident. Court paperwork echo his sentiments, stating, “if successful, these actions could have caused death to Officer Maracallo.”

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The scenario began as a result of John Slater, a person well-known to police and one of many people later concerned within the wrestle contained in the automotive, stood in the course of Main Street, “yelling, screaming and causing motorists to slow down,” courtroom paperwork state.

When Officer Alexander Maracallo arrived, physique digicam footage reveals him asking the motive force, later recognized as Sarah McMahon in courtroom paperwork, what they have been doing. She advised him she was ready for Slater, a pal, however denied doing any medication.

“Do you think I was born yesterday?” the officer requested, declaring the tin foil and open luggage.

Slater then got here to the automotive however gave the officer a false identify. He acquired within the automotive, telling police he was getting his ID. Maracallo responded by saying they didn’t want his ID.

“What are you doing?” the officer requested.

As the officer moved to cease him, the scenario shortly changed into a frantic wrestle within the entrance seat.

“Go, go, go,” a person may be heard yelling, and the motive force started shifting the automotive, hitting a distinct police officer outdoors the automotive, police stated.

“Stop the (expletive) car,” Maracallo yelled.

The battle continued with a person yelling “go,” whereas Maracallo pleaded for them to cease the dashing automotive, additionally yelling “you’re going to get shot.”

The driver and passenger pleaded for the officer to get off of Slater.

“Don’t hurt him,” McMahon yelled.

Eventually, Maracallo acquired the automotive to cease and yelled at everybody to get out as he continued preventing with Slater. Maracallo may be seen punching Slater, inflicting him to bleed, and choking him.

At about the identical time, one other officer handcuffed McMahon, who was mendacity on the bottom outdoors the automotive.

“Get off of me,” Slater, who was nonetheless contained in the automotive, stated — his phrases popping out quick and breathy.

Another police officer pulled Slater out of the automotive, inflicting his pants to fall off, and handcuffed him on the bottom.

“Get off of him,” McMahon continued to yell.

Once the 2 have been handcuffed, Maracallo walked away, respiratory closely.

“I lost my shoe,” he stated.

The scenario comes practically two years after a Worcester decide and Slater’s mother made a plan to get Slater assist. His historical past of costs goes again 10 years and a number of Massachusetts cities, together with costs in reference to beforehand hitting a police officer’s leg with a automotive and capturing individuals with a paintball gun.

Prosecutors have been warning for years that Slater’s sample of driving off after interactions with police confirmed a “continued theme.”

“He’s (expletive) back out again,” Maracallo stated after discovering out Slater’s actual identify.

A failed likelihood at rehabilitation

Courts have repeatedly discovered Slater harmful. His mom hoped these selections can be the turning level that introduced him the assistance he’s lengthy wanted.

“This could all end,” Anna Coll stated in 2024.

Coll advised MassDwell that 12 months that her son was not the legal painted by police and prosecutors.

Slater’s “not a fighter, he’s not violent, but he is aggressive,” she stated. Before his 2024 listening to, she stated her son was lovable and “like a hippy.”

She hoped protecting Slater in custody would imply he can be away from anybody enabling him to take medication or trigger hurt — ending his path as a legal.

On April 4, 2024, Slater was driving on a suspended license whereas working for DoorDash, police stated. A police officer reached his arm inside Slater’s automotive to unlock the door and arrest him. Slater deeply inhaled his vape system and drove off with the again of his automotive hanging the officer’s leg and inflicting him to lose his stability, the police report stated.

Police officers “circled the area and we were unable to locate the vehicle,” based on the police report.

Then, on April 17, 2024, detectives noticed Slater’s Chevy Cruze whereas patrolling within the space of Green Hill Park. The detectives tried to get him to tug over, however he continued to drive off “in a manner that showed complete disregard for the safety of pedestrians,” police wrote. The detectives didn’t pursue him.

Two days later, when he once more did not cease for Worcester police, they notified the Massachusetts State Police.

Slater led State Police on a chase alongside the Massachusetts Turnpike heading east towards Millbury earlier than he made a U-turn and drove the improper approach right into a police cruiser, which police imagine was on objective. The driver’s facet and again finish of the Chevy have been broken because of this.

Police stated the then-21-year-old continued driving the improper approach on Interstate 90. State Police models and an Air Wing have been deployed to observe Slater and the Chevy, however misplaced him.

Police lastly arrested Slater on April 24, 2024.

After recognizing Slater, Officer Anthony Lombardozzi ran out of his cruiser towards Slater and tried to seize him. Slater closed his automotive door, however Lombardozzi opened it “and began to attempt to take a violently resisting Mr. Slater into custody,” Lombardozzi wrote within the police report.

Three cops pulled Slater from the automotive, however he continued to withstand arrest, and it “took numerous attempts and an unknown amount of time” to get Slater to the bottom, based on courtroom paperwork.

As extra officers got here to their support, Lombardozzi wrote that they nonetheless couldn’t get Slater’s arm behind his again as he “was continually putting his hands under his body … in what I believed was an attempt for him to retrieve a weapon to harm either myself or other officers on scene.”

Police lastly positioned him in handcuffs, however Slater “continued his tirade and continually resisted and moved” in a approach that appeared like he would escape, Lombardozzi wrote.

On Aug. 22, 2024, Slater pleaded responsible and was sentenced to 18 months within the Worcester County House of Correction.

Many of the fees he confronted in district courtroom previous to pleading responsible in 2024 have been dismissed. He has additionally been indicted in Worcester Superior Court twice, as soon as in 2021 and once more in 2022. He pleaded responsible in reference to the 2021 incident in Superior Court and costs have been dismissed within the 2022 Superior Court case.

Before his mom left the courtroom in May 2024 following a dangerousness listening to, Coll and the decide agreed that, as soon as the 2024 case was over, Slater’s subsequent step was to hunt rehabilitation with the assistance of an expert.

“He’ll have outside help,” she stated. “This is just the start. (This is) opening up a door to (give him) proper help.”

However, that must wait. During the May 2024 listening to, he was deemed harmful and remained within the Worcester County House of Correction.

Despite the sooner dedication to hunt assist for Slater, it’s unclear what, if something, was completed as soon as he completed his 18-month sentence. To Saucier, although, the priority is unchanged: he believes Slater stays a menace.

“He’s a threat to the public, he’s a threat to the police. That person should be in prison. And I don’t know why he’s out there,” he stated.

Health points

Coll stated her son has been scuffling with well being points, together with seizures, because of a violent automotive crash in Worcester.

Seated within the passenger seat, Slater hit his head towards the window of a automotive whereas his pal within the driver’s seat reached over and held him again.

“I think (that crash) plays a big role when he’s high,” Coll stated about why her son makes use of fentanyl.

But Coll stated the dying of Slater’s paternal grandmother has performed a job in his drug abuse. She died in his room.

“John doesn’t care if he dies,” she continued. “He just wants to be with her. It’s like a connection (between him and his grandmother) in that house.”

On Christmas Eve 2023, a number of months after felony costs in reference to intimidation have been dismissed, Slater overdosed on fentanyl, Coll stated. The household was extra scared for his security than ever, she stated.

Still, his reckless habits continued.

Use of power

Immediately after the Jan. 16, 2026 , incident, Maracallo may be heard informing fellow officers and a sergeant that he punched McMahon and Slater. He may also be seen along with his hand round Slater’s neck through the wrestle contained in the automotive.

Maracallo may be heard saying he damage his hand from the punches and foot because of the automotive door closing on it whereas he was trapped. He, together with McMahon, Slater and a police officer who was hit by the automotive, have been taken to the hospital to be evaluated.

The Worcester Police Department has been sharply criticized for its use of extreme and unjustified power in a 2024 Justice Department report following a two-year investigation. The report mentions harmful and unreasonable head strikes.

But this, Saucier stated, was an officer preventing for his life.

“People think that the police are superhuman. We get hurt, too. There’s cops getting killed every single day,” he stated.

Only by the grace of God, Saucier stated, is that this officer nonetheless working.

“If that car took a different turn, instead of going straight on Main Street and took a left turn, (and) that door flew open, he was getting thrown from the vehicle,” Saucier stated. “And then again, you never know if that guy’s gonna have a weapon. I mean, if that guy had a gun or a knife, it’s over.”

Still, Maracallo’s actions are underneath evaluate by the Bureau of Professional Standards to find out whether or not the power used was objectively affordable in gentle of the totality of the circumstances.

“Again, just to make sure everything was in policy or if there are any training deficiencies that we need to address,” Saucier stated. “So it’s a whole line of things that happens whenever officers use force.”

These kinds of incidents may also maintain individuals from becoming a member of the police division sooner or later, a regarding difficulty as the town’s police division is at the moment down 58 officers.

“At one point, you were brought up to respect the law, respect police; nowadays, that doesn’t happen,” Saucier stated. He pointed to an enormous post-blizzard snowball battle in New York that ended with cops being pelted and injured.

“And it does deter some people from wanting this job,” he stated.

January 2026

On Feb. 2 , Slater was as soon as once more deemed harmful by Worcester courts.

He was charged with assault to homicide, kidnapping, try to disarm a police officer, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. He was additionally in possession of three glass pipes containing crack cocaine, police stated.

McMahon additionally faces a number of costs, together with assault to homicide, kidnapping and drug costs.

Slater’s return to crime in Worcester isn’t utterly stunning to Saucier.

“Most of the people causing the problems in society are the same people,” he stated. “It’s a very small percentage of people that actually commit the violence, and that’s why we target those individuals.”

But it may be disheartening to officers who spend months engaged on an investigation, take a harmful individual off the streets, solely to come across them once more, the police chief defined.

“And then when they get back out, after we spent all that time putting them in, that’s very disheartening to the officers, all the work they do,” he stated. “And look at (Slater). This cop could have been killed very easily.”

Saucier strongly helps diversion applications, particularly for individuals underneath 18. Still, he worries that repeated leniency towards some people might result in a tragic final result for an officer.

The Worcester District Attorney’s workplace is unable to touch upon ongoing instances.

Slater is being held in Worcester County House of Correction till at the very least May 15, when he’s anticipated to return to courtroom.

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©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

With SS8’s Discovery, the company fused these sources right into a single analytical view, offering automated filtering, real-time hyperlink evaluation

By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster
The Middletown Press, Conn.

MERIDEN, Conn. — The 10 barbed electrodes in each cartridge used within the new Tasers carried now by each Connecticut State Police trooper offers them eight extra possibilities than they used to need to subdue a suspect with out utilizing deadly power, Trooper First Class Dale DeGaetano mentioned.

DeGaetano first triggered a high-pitched siren from the system throughout an indication Wednesday on the Connecticut Police Academy. He then raised the Taser and its inexperienced laser shined a dot on the abdomen space of a model about 20 ft away.

| WEBINAR: Interagency coordination for large-scale particular occasions

DeGaetano fired the Taser and a single barb, adopted by an nearly imperceptibly skinny silver wire, shot out. With nearly no hesitation, DeGaetano shot a second barb into the model’s leg. The Taser let loose a single, lengthy tone, indicating the weapon sensed {that a} circuit had been closed and the suspect probably was subdued.

“With an individually targeted probe, you have nine opportunities after that first probe to get a change in behavior,” DeGaetano mentioned.

The demonstration comes on the heels of two Hartford police shootings in 9 days that triggered the deaths of two males concerned in confrontations with officers. People protesting these shootings in Hartford on Wednesday referred to as for a evaluation of police coaching. Most Connecticut cities require cops to hold Tasers, however Hartford doesn’t.

The troopers’ new Tasers are a part of a 10-year, $120 million contract between the Connecticut State Police and Arizona-based Axon Enterprise, offering not solely the weapons, but additionally new body-worn cameras with built-in AI and a collection of digital actuality coaching simulations.

For months, DeGaetano has been coaching troopers on the usage of the brand new Tasers, which he referred to as “a very ‘Groundhog Day’ experience.”

“Whereas your traditional Tasers are shooting simultaneously, two at a time, and you have a maximum of two cartridges, this Taser has individually targeted probes, one at a time, giving the user the ability to place a probe safely in places that are most advantageous to create that neuromuscular incapacitation,” DeGaetano mentioned.

Older generations of Tasers had solely a single shot of two barbs, with a spread of about 20 ft, delivering 50,000 volts. If that didn’t work, for no matter cause, then extra deadly choices can be deployed.

The new Tasers, referred to as Taser 10, fireplace one 1,000-volt barb at a time, ideally first within the stomach after which in an extremity, creating distance between the 2 barbs and {an electrical} circuit that triggers muscle contraction.

“What they did with that lower voltage is they create an intensity that allows it to stimulate muscle and create a neuromuscular incapacitation, that gives you a really good change in behavior,” DeGaetano mentioned. “It’s putting somebody into a lock-up.”

If the trooper misses the goal or the barb hits a shielded space, there are eight extra alternatives.

“We’ve had at least a half dozen to a dozen uses in the first four months or so across the state, and I’ve been able to see most of them personally. I’ve looked at the usage of it, just because I’m intimately intertwined in it,” DeGaetano mentioned. “We have not had, as of this date, a use that didn’t lead to a good outcome, which is a safe outcome.”

The Tasers additionally include an accelerometer, permitting the system to know when it’s raised. DeGaetano mentioned “it’s like a small laptop with the ability to be a conducted energy weapon system.”

When the Taser is recharged, its information is routinely despatched for assortment, so it may be in contrast towards what the trooper’s body-worn digital camera captured.

“It allows good time stamping of when something is drawn from the holster, when it is raised, when it is turned on and obviously when it’s deployed. It’s going to keep little breadcrumbs about that,” DeGaetano mentioned. “These are just things that help paint that picture and keep a good evidentiary collection.”

The new body-worn cameras can translate to and from 50 completely different languages, and although it’s not instantaneous, it’s a important enchancment from what troopers beforehand had obtainable.

“We were hoping you have cellphone coverage to actually be able to make a phone call to something called the language line and get someone on the phone,” state police Capt. Ryan Maynard mentioned. “People aren’t always necessarily wanting to talk on the phone, depending on what it is we’re there for.”

The translation possibility “gives us the ability to also get information faster,” Maynard mentioned. “If somebody’s in distress, or even if it was a medical emergency, it allows me, rather than taking and diverting my attention, I can speak to them and all they have to do is talk.”

The $120 million contract with Axon offers not solely the {hardware} itself, but additionally information storage and a platform on which that information may be accessed.

“There’s unlimited cloud storage. We own the data,” Maynard mentioned. “Even if we decide to no longer be with Axon, however we want to do that, we will always have access to that data. It’s our data.”

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The new directive bars masks supposed to hide identification whereas allowing use for security, well being and weather-related causes

March 04, 2026 10:31 AM

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© 2026 The Middletown Press, Conn.. Visit www.middletownpress.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

“In-car recording remains a critical layer of patrol accountability,” mentioned Kyle Ragsdale, CSO of 10-8 Video. “Departments need equipment that integrates cleanly into the vehicle while delivering dependable performance”

February 26, 2026 03:50 PM

By Alex Riggins
The San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO — A federal jury on Tuesday convicted former San Diego County sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Richard Russell of a civil rights violation for the 2020 capturing demise of Nicholas Bils, who was unarmed and operating away from regulation enforcement officers exterior the downtown jail when Russell shot him a number of instances, together with no less than as soon as within the again.

Russell, 29, was charged with depriving Bils of his rights beneath colour of regulation and discharging a firearm in relation to against the law of violence. The jury convicted him on each counts.

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The jury deliberated for only a day earlier than returning its verdict in what was Russell’s second trial; jurors final 12 months deliberated for elements of six days earlier than they have been unable to achieve a unanimous verdict on the identical costs, prompting a choose to declare a mistrial.

Russell is the second former native deputy prior to now three months to be convicted of a civil rights violation in U.S. District Court. In December, a San Diego federal jury convicted former Deputy Jeremiah Manuyag Flores on the identical cost of deprivation of rights beneath the colour of regulation, in addition to a rely of falsifying a report in a federal investigation, for forcefully shoving a closely restrained man headfirst right into a wall, leading to severe accidents.

In each instances, preliminary trials ended with deadlocked juries and mistrials, however prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office secured convictions the second go-around in every case.

Russell shot and killed Bils, a 36-year-old San Diego resident, the night of May 1, 2020, somewhat greater than a month into the COVID-19 pandemic. Bils had been arrested by California State Park rangers for violating COVID restrictions at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. As he was being transported to jail, he escaped from a ranger’s car and commenced sprinting away from officers and deputies with handcuffs nonetheless hooked up to at least one wrist.

Russell, who was 23 on the time and had graduated from the San Diego Regional Training Academy a few 12 months earlier, was strolling to work on the jail when he noticed Bils escape from throughout the road. He stepped into the roadway and rapidly fired 5 photographs from shut vary with out warning. At least 4 of the photographs struck Bils, together with one which pierced his again.

Russell resigned from the Sheriff’s Office 5 days after the capturing, and some weeks later, county prosecutors charged him with second-degree homicide, making him the primary San Diego -area regulation enforcement officer to face a homicide cost within the capturing demise of a suspect. He was additionally the primary officer within the state to face a homicide cost beneath stricter use-of-force requirements that went into impact simply months earlier than the capturing.

He pleaded responsible in 2022 to a state cost of voluntary manslaughter and served about 5 months in jail. Technically, he now faces as much as life in jail for the federal civil rights conviction, although he’s not anticipated to obtain a sentence practically that harsh.

Russell had sought early final month to delay his second trial, arguing that he couldn’t get a good trial “given the current political climate” following the latest killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal brokers in Minneapolis . His attorneys had argued that these shootings had “dominated the news cycle,” and that given the similarities to Russell’s case, jurors probably wouldn’t be neutral towards him.

U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson rejected these arguments and ordered the trial to maneuver ahead as deliberate. It started Feb. 17 and lasted elements of seven days, wrapping up Monday morning. The jury deliberated Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning earlier than returning the two-count responsible verdict.

“Mr. Russell is a good man who acted in a split second to stop an escaping prisoner with a shiny metal object in his hand that he thought was a gun,” protection legal professional Jeremy Warren stated Tuesday after the decision was introduced. “Mr. Russell accepted responsibility for his mistake years ago and we are disappointed the federal government wanted to punish him a second time.”

During the primary trial, Russell testified that he believed {the handcuffs} round Bils’ wrist to be a gun. Footage of the capturing confirmed that whereas Bils was nonetheless stumbling after being shot, Russell put his gun again in its holster. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Askins argued that by re-holstering so rapidly, Russell confirmed he by no means really believed Bils was armed with a gun or posed a lethal risk.

When Russell pleaded responsible to the voluntary manslaughter cost in state courtroom, he admitted that he “unreasonably believed that I or someone else was in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily injury,” in response to the District Attorney’s Office. He additionally admitted in his plea that he “actually, but unreasonably believed that the immediate use of deadly force was necessary to defend against the danger.”

In 2022, the identical 12 months he pleaded responsible within the state case, the county agreed to pay $8.1 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Bils’ household.

In May 2024 , greater than 4 years after the capturing, a federal grand jury indicted Russell on the civil rights violation for which he was convicted Tuesday.

Robinson, the choose, allowed Russell on Tuesday to stay out of custody on bond. Sentencing is scheduled for May.

Billy Leon Kearse fatally shot Fort Pierce Officer Danny Parrish after seizing his firearm throughout a site visitors cease, firing 14 rounds

Travis County District Attorney José Garza stated his workplace isn’t in search of costs in opposition to the officers who fatally shot a gunman throughout a downtown mass capturing

March 03, 2026 06:42 PM

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As officers have been working to apprehend a suspect in a car’s passenger seat, the driving force tried to flee, putting one officer with the car and carrying one other contained in the automobile

The new directive bars masks meant to hide id whereas allowing use for security, well being and weather-related causes

March 04, 2026 10:31 AM

 · 

©2026 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The annual ILEETA Conference & Expo attracts law-enforcement educators, trainers, and decision-makers from throughout the nation to have interaction in skilled growth, hands-on workshops, and cutting-edge coaching demonstrations

February 27, 2026 02:10 PM

By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News

NEW YORK — A second suspect has been busted for throwing snowballs at cops in Washington Square Park, sources mentioned.

Eric Wilson, 18, surrendered on the sixth Precinct, accompanied by his lawyer, at 9:10 a.m. on Wednesday, police mentioned.

| OP-ED: The NYC snowball assault wasn’t a joke — it was a line being crossed

Wilson, who lives in Harlem, was charged with obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a non-criminal violation, sources mentioned.

The first particular person arrested in reference to the Feb. 23 incident, Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was hit with the identical fees.

Police had initially charged Coulibaly with felony assault, however Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decreased the fees, angering police unions.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch referred to as the incident a “disgraceful” and “criminal” assault on cops, however Mayor Zohran Mamdani described it as “kids at a snowball fight” and mentioned nobody ought to be arrested.

Nonetheless, the NYPD launched photographs of 4 suspects — together with two nonetheless being sought.

Several hours earlier than the incident, organizers on social media touted a midafternoon mass snowball combat.

But sooner or later, police mentioned, a 911 caller mentioned there have been individuals who had climbed on the consolation station roof and had been hurling snowballs.

Two cops assigned to a park element went to research and had been pelted with snowballs, as had been different cops referred to as to help the 2 officers.

One officer was handled for bruises and scratches under his eye and one other was handled for head ache.

Billy Leon Kearse fatally shot Fort Pierce Officer Danny Parrish after seizing his firearm throughout a site visitors cease, firing 14 rounds

Travis County District Attorney José Garza mentioned his workplace isn’t searching for fees towards the officers who fatally shot a gunman throughout a downtown mass capturing

March 03, 2026 06:42 PM

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As officers had been working to apprehend a suspect in a automobile’s passenger seat, the motive force tried to flee, hanging one officer with the automobile and carrying one other contained in the automotive

Newville officers eradicated an officer place, leaving the chief — at present out on staff’ compensation — because the division’s sole member

———–

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

“In-car recording remains a critical layer of patrol accountability,” mentioned Kyle Ragsdale, CSO of 10-8 Video. “Departments need equipment that integrates cleanly into the vehicle while delivering dependable performance”

February 26, 2026 03:50 PM