A Group of Teens Were Picking Up Pizza. An Off-Duty Cop Shot at Their Car.

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An off-duty Rhode Island cop shot an 18-year-old driver last month after he saw an Audi, full of teenagers, speeding and tried to stop the vehicle in a pizzeria parking lot, according to court documents and surveillance footage. 

Now, Pawtucket Police Officer Daniel Dolan is facing criminal charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon, over the June 23 incident, authorities announced Thursday. He’s also on leave from his department, according to the Providence Journal. 

“We felt from the very beginning that crimes were committed that evening,” James Howe, an attorney for the three teens in the car at the time, told VICE News. 

The Audi’s driver, Dominic Vincent, survived the shooting but suffered a fractured humerus bone, according to Howe. The incident, which was partially captured on surveillance footage obtained by WPRI-TV, has also traumatized him and the other boys in the vehicle, according to Howe. 

Vincent told investigators that he and the two other teens in the Audi—Vincent Greco Jr., 18, and Joseph Greco, 17—were picking up snacks and a pizza ahead of a basketball game and sleepover that night when the officer’s large white pickup truck attempted to suddenly box them in, according to charging documents filed in the Kent County Superior Court last week. 

Dolan said the Audi had sped past him on the highway, traveled in the breakdown lane, and overtaken two vehicles. He wanted to talk to the driver and “prevent him from possibly injuring somebody,” he told investigators. 

But since Dolan was off duty, he wasn’t driving a police vehicle or wearing his uniform, so Vincent didn’t know if he was a real officer, he told investigators. Vincent did, however, spot Dolan’s badge and gun. 

Surveillance footage shows that as Dolan, who is also a school resource officer, started to approach the Audi, Vincent immediately reversed. 

Vincent told investigators he was panicking at the time, and that Dolan screamed he was going to shoot him. After that threat, the teen said he put his “foot to the floor,” according to charging documents. 

Dolan told investigators he believed he was about to be hit. But Vincent said the vehicle was only moving “two to three miles per hour,” according to charging documents, and that Dolan was standing on the driver’s side. 

Even so, Dolan told investigators he thought that if Vincent drove forward, he was “going to take me onto the roadway with him and kill me,’” according to charging documents. That’s when he fired his gun. 

The incident began, according to Dolan, after he ended his shift, consumed “a sip” of beer, and spotted the teenager’s Audi. 

(At the scene, Dolan also submitted to a field sobriety test, which he passed. He displayed 0.00% blood alcohol content in a preliminary breath test, according to the charging documents.)

Dolan said he initially assumed the Audi had been used in a crime or involved in a high-speed pursuit with police but continued driving because he didn’t see any kind of chase himself, according to charging documents. Eventually, he lost sight of the Audi and pulled off the highway, where he witnessed the same vehicle driving into Wicked Good Pizza in West Greenwich. 

Dolan followed behind. Once in the parking lot, he hopped out of his truck, presented his badge, and told the vehicle to stop, at which point the Audi started to back up. 

Once Dolan believed he might be hit, he fired his weapon. He then got back into his car and once again followed the boys, who had driven off a short distance before coming to a stop.

After they were all together again, Vincent allegedly told Dolan he thought he was going to die and pleaded for help, according to charging documents. Dolan told investigators that he called 911 and wrapped a sweatshirt around Vincent’s arm as a makeshift tourniquet. 

Vincent was later transported to a local hospital after first responders arrived. 

“These are good kids,” Howe said. “Never been in trouble a day in their lives. They’re as regular as you’d ever expect 17- and 18-year-olds to be: respectful of their parents, law-abiding young people. To have this happen to them is just unspeakable.”

Dolan is scheduled for an arraignment on July 16, according to a statement from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, which investigated the incident along with other law enforcement agencies.