Police Officer Bobby Garten was killed when his cruiser was struck by a fleeing vehicle speeding through a red traffic signal on Broad Street in Hartford.
Officers initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle with canceled registration tags. When officers approached the vehicle, it sped away, traveling north on Broad Street. The officers did not pursue the fleeing vehicle.
Moments later, at 10:30 p.m., Officer Garten was in the passenger seat of a patrol cruiser traveling east on Asylum Avenue with emergency lights and sirens activated en route to another incident. The fleeing car sped through the Farmington Avenue red traffic signal, and as it was speeding through the red traffic signal at Asylum Avenue, it struck the passenger side of the cruiser.
Officer Gartner and the officer driving the cruiser were transported to St. Francis Hospital where Officer Garten succumbed to his injuries. The other officer is in stable condition.
The subject is in custody and charged with failure to obey a traffic control signal, failure to renew registration, misuse of plates, and interfering with a police officer.
Officer Garten had served with the Hartford Police Department for eight years. He was a second-generation police officer.
Source: ODMP –
https://www.odmp.org/officer/26778-police-officer-robert-garten