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Raymond Lapinski appears in a mugshot from April 2023. (Connecticut State Police)
A Connecticut man is facing a litany of charges after allegedly threatening a police sergeant with his life and then pulling a knife on a member of law enforcement, police in the Nutmeg State say.
However, authorities say Lapinski has had at least five run-ins with officers in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area during April, according to The Middletown Press.
The latest series of incidents started late Monday morning, police told the paper, when Lapinski shouted at an on-duty state police sergeant, asked him if he was a “cop,” and then said he “kills cops.”
“Using profane language, the male went on to threaten to kill the sergeant specifically,” a spokesperson for the CSP said in comments reported by Hartford-based CBS affiliate WFSB.
The sergeant next attempted to take the defendant into custody, but Lapinski allegedly drove off in a Honda sedan while shouting an array of profanities, police allege. Then, the defendant quickly came to a stop, made an “obscene hand gesture,” screamed additional profanities at the sergeant and drove off again, state police said.
According to the Middletown Press, the sergeant briefly lost sight of the sedan but then spotted it again nearby and activated his police unit’s emergency lights and siren to make a traffic stop.
The CSP alleges that Lapinski then accelerated to speeds over 100 mph on Interstate 91 going south – causing law enforcement to eventually give up the chase “in the interest of public safety.”
A search ensued. Troopers and Hartford police officers combed the city. Lapinski was found walking near the cross-streets of Asylum Avenue and Ann Ucello Street around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, state police said. When law enforcement identified themselves, the defendant pulled out a knife, police claim.
And still, police say, the obscenities continued.
The defendant complied when told to drop the knife after officers drew their guns, police said. But Lapinski allegedly remained “combative” when he was finally taken into custody.
“Officers sustained minor injuries during the struggle to secure Lapinski in the cruiser,” the CSP told WFSB.
At the time, he was charged with assault on a public safety officer, criminal attempt to commit assault in the first degree, interfering with an officer, and carrying a dangerous weapon.
On Wednesday, he was also charged with second-degree threatening, first-degree reckless endangerment, reckless driving and disobeying the signal of an officer/attempting to elude or escape an officer over the Monday incident.
Local warrants were filed against Lapinski in the cities of Hartford, West Hartford, and Canton, the CSP said. Each of those warrants accuse him of engaging police in pursuit. Hartford police also alleged separate incidents in which he drove recklessly, tried to interfere with officers, made threats, and breached the peace, the Middletown Press reported, citing court records.
Similar charges were filed in West Hartford, the paper reported. In Canton, the pursuit charge was only filed in tandem with an unregistered vehicle charge.
The next court date for all of Lapinski’s cases is slated for May 10. His bond is set at $560,000.
