The fatal police shooting of a teenager with a mental illness who led officers on a car chase in a stolen vehicle in Peterborough grabbed headlines across the state and beyond this summer.
Lane Lesko, 19, of Michigan, died of a gunshot wound on June 21 after police Chief Brian Giammarino fired four shots at Lesko.
Giammarino fired the shots after Lesko exited the vehicle and brandished what appeared to be a handgun. An attorney general’s report later stated the gun turned out to be a BB pistol.
Lesko pointed the gun at Giammarino, despite officers telling him to drop the weapon, according to reports. Believing Lesko’s handgun was a real firearm and fearing for his life, Giammarino shot and killed Lesko.
Lesko, who struggled with mental illness, had run away from a residential adolescent therapeutic wilderness treatment program in Maine. He stole a car in Maine and drove to New Hampshire, where he stole a tow truck in Milford and a BMW SUV in Nashua.
Giammarino spotted the stolen BMW in Greenfield and when he attempted to pull the driver over, Lesko fled, driving away at speeds that reached 80 MPH on rural roads. Police placed spike strips in the road and although Lesko swerved in an attempt to avoid them, he caught some of sharp items, which sent him off the road on Route 136 in Peterborough.
Lesko stepped out of the BMW and stood by the passenger-side door. He refused to respond to commands given by officers at the scene to step away from the car and show them his hands and yelled at the on-scene officers to shoot and kill him.
Giammarino went on leave after the fatal shot was fired. A 27-page report by the state’s attorney general’s office concluded Lesko created a dangerous situation, which escalated to the point where it became reasonable for Giammarino to believe he faced an imminent threat to his life.
Lesko’s mother, Patricia Lesko, has publicly questioned whether police took enough time to assess her son’s mental state ahead of the shooting, and questioned the use of deadly force in the situation.
Giammarino returned to work in August after a stint of paid leave. The department has overspent part-time wages because of the manpower it took to cover the station while Giammarino was out on leave. Select Board Chair Margaret Charig Bliss said it is still unclear how the town is going to pay for those overages.
Since the shooting, Select Board members have asked Giammarino to update the department’s policy document for officers involved in such events.
Charig Bliss said prior to the shooting, the document included the use of deadly force and the moments leading up to the use of deadly force, but did not map out how the situation should be handled afterward. She said a version of the updated and revised document has been presented to the board, but said the document has not yet been finalized.
“What do you do in small communities when something like this happens?” Charig Bliss said.
“If you are in a big town, or city, you have layers of officers and administration, but in small communities you can’t pass very much stuff around. It ends up being left to the Select Board to decide how you proceed.”
She said updating the policy document would create a roadmap for future Select Board members on how to proceed.