A Michigan man repeatedly called on officers to kill him on a state highway in Peterborough last month as he refused their commands and, instead, walked toward them with what appeared to be a handgun, investigators say.
In response, Greenfield police Chief Brian Giammarino told investigators that he felt he had run out of options, so he fired at Lane Lesko, who dropped to the pavement about 10 yards away.
Lesko, 19, died at the scene. A BB gun was recovered near his body.
The June 21 car chase and standoff with police is detailed in an attorney general’s report released Wednesday, which for the first time names Giammarino as the shooter. Giammarino will not face any criminal charges in connection with the incident, as the investigation found that his actions were “legally justified.”
Giammarino told investigators that he was driving toward Antrim when he heard dispatch issue a “be on the lookout” for a stolen BMW. In response, he drove back toward Greenfield, where he spotted the BMW and pursued it, accelerating to 80 mph.
Once in Peterborough, the BMW’s left rear tire hit spike strips laid out by Peterborough Cpl. Craig Edsall. The car came to a halt in a ditch, which ended the chase but began the standoff with Lesko.
Giammarino said he could not see Lesko, “so he yelled at him to get out of the car and show him his hands,” the report says. When Lesko ultimately stepped outside the car, Giammarino and Edsall continued to order Lesko to show his hands, which he failed to do, according to the report. Instead, Giammarino said he heard Lesko say “just kill me, just shoot me.”
At the time, the report says, Lesko was holding what appeared to be a black handgun, which made popping sounds as he pointed it at Giammarino, who, with Edsall, didn’t know what to make of the noise. Giammarino believed at the time that Lesko had a .22 caliber handgun, and that “Lesko was a bad shot, which explained why he did not see any bullet damage,” according to the report.
As Lesko moved closer, Giammarino said he “felt that he was out of options and fired at Lesko. He thought he fired three or four times.”
The fatal shot hit Lesko in the neck.
Edsall told investigators that Lesko’s gun looked “real” to him, too, and that he hadn’t fired “because he thought something was ‘off’ and did not feel right,” the report says. However, if Lesko had moved toward him, Edsall said, he would have used deadly force.
State Trooper Scott Tracy also responded to the scene, but said Giammarino and Edsall didn’t realize he was there until after the fact. He believed Lesko was holding an airsoft gun, and yelled that information out before the shooting, but did not see or hear Giammarino or Edsall respond, the report says.
Both Tracy and Edsall described Giammarino as shaken up and upset after the shooting.
A man who was driving east on Route 136 witnessed the shooting and said he saw officers consoling one of their own. That officer was “bent over, visibly upset, and appeared almost physically ill,” the report says.
The driver was one of more than a dozen people interviewed as part of the investigation.
Officers at the scene did not know then about Lesko’s history of mental illness. His mother, Patricia Lesko, told the Associated Press in the days after the shooting that her son was autistic and bipolar.
Even if the officers had known that information, “it would not have changed the fact that Lesko presented an apparent imminent threat of deadly force,” the attorney general found.
A year earlier, Lesko was arrested in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., after posing as an FBI agent during a home invasion. He pleaded guilty to the crime in February, but his prison sentence was delayed so he could get mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Lesko was in residential treatment at Summit Achievement in Stow, Maine, when he went missing June 19.
Police say he ran away and stole several vehicles along the way to facilitate his escape, including a BMW from a used car dealership in Nashua.
A saleswoman there had agreed to drive Lesko, who claimed he had left his wallet and license at a nearby garage. However, he then threatened her with a gun, told her to pull the vehicle over and to get out, the report says. The woman ran and called 911.
Giammarino was the next person to spot Lesko in the stolen BMW.
Lesko’s mother told the AP on Wednesday that the document presents only “one side of the story.” She said she still has questions about the police response that day.
Did officers take enough time to assess her son’s mental state?
Did her son hear officers’ commands to step away from the car?
She doesn’t know.
Of the three officers involved in the June 21 incident, none were wearing body cameras. Tracy’s cruiser had a video recording unit in it, but a glitch in the system prevented it from capturing any video at the scene.
Lesko was buried June 26 in his home state of Michigan. Toxicology results are still pending.