State's attorney's office IDs Montville union president as cop that shot man outside motel in January
Danielson — Robin Salvatore, a longtime Montville police officer and the head of the department’s union, is the officer who shot a man who allegedly attacked her with a Taser outside a Route 85 motel in January.
Richard Weiss, a police inspector with the Windham County State’s Attorney’s Office in Danielson, said Thursday that Salvatore and Montville Officer Gregg Jacobson are the two subjects of an investigation into the incident.
Salvatore and Jacobson responded to the motel on Jan. 29 when the motel’s owner called police because Val Thomas, who had been living in a room at the motel for about six weeks, refused to pay a $250 bill.
State police said the officers asked Thomas to leave, there was “brief but violent” struggle in which Thomas, 53, took a Taser from one of the officers and began hitting that officer in the head with it.
Weiss said Thursday that Salvatore shot Thomas, who was pronounced dead at The William W. Backus Hospital. Salvatore has been on the town's police force since 1989.
Both officers were assigned to administrative duty immediately following the incident, according to state police Sgt. Mark Juhola, who is stationed as the resident state trooper overseeing the Montville department.
They will be doing clerical work and not responding to police calls at least until the state’s attorney’s office finishes its investigation, Juhola said.
The state's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Thomas died as a result of a gunshot wound to his abdomen and pelvis.
In Connecticut, fatal police shootings or other police “use-of-force” deaths are handled by prosecutors from a judicial district outside the one where the death occurred. The investigation will include an assessment of whether the officer complied with the Montville police department's policy on firearms and use of physical force.
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