A Fryeburg police officer was justified when he killed a Massachusetts man after a high-speed chase in January.
That’s the conclusion of investigators from the Maine attorney general’s office, which on Friday released its report into Officer Micheal St. Laurent’s fatal shooting of 52-year-old Kenneth Ellis.
Ellis was fleeing from police in Conway, New Hampshire, in a black Ford F-150 pickup truck on Jan. 30. St. Laurent learned that New Hampshire police were abandoning the pursuit as Ellis headed toward Maine, and St. Laurent and Oxford County sheriff’s Deputy Justin Groetzinger headed toward the state border to intercept him, according to the report.
Groetzinger spotted Ellis’ pickup truck and notified St. Laurent that Ellis was heading toward the Fryeburg police officer.
As St. Laurent began pursuing him, Ellis was speeding and weaving in and out of the oncoming lane in heavy traffic, the investigators wrote.
St. Laurent was about to abandon his pursuit as well when Ellis crashed into multiple vehicles and came to a stop in front of the Norway Savings Bank on Main Street in Fryeburg. Ellis hit a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado and a Ford Focus making left-hand turns into the parking lot of Nouria, a convenience store, before rear-ending a Subaru Outback and coming to a stop in a snowbank.