A newly released report from the Office of Inspector General has found that an East Haven police officer was justified in firing his weapon at a 27-year-old man with multiple police warrants in Milford last January.
Inspector General Robert J Devlin, Jr. wrote in the report that East Haven Police Lt. Joseph Finoia, who fired his duty pistol at Nicholas Gambardella on Jan. 5, 2023, in Milford, “reacted reasonably in attempting to eliminate the threat.”
Finoia fired his weapon at Gambardella off of Interstate 95 in Milford, where officers had chased him after he drove his car toward several police vehicles, nearly striking officers as they tried to arrest him on multiple warrants outside of a Burger King in Branford.
Officers followed Gambardella’s car onto the highway for about 17 miles, then chased him on foot after he crashed into a guardrail near Exit 36.
Gambardella ignored officers’ orders to get on the ground, reached into his waistband and extended his arms in front of his chest as if he were pointing something at officers, according to the report.
“I believed Gambardella was going to shoot me,” Finoia said in an interview for the report. “I was in fear for my personal safety, that of other officers and for the safety of civilians in the area and having no time for any de-escalation measures.”
Finoia fired his pistol at Gambardella three times. Gambardella was not hit but fell to the ground and was taken into custody.
At that moment, Devlin said Finoia was justified in thinking he was in danger and that any other office would have felt their life was being threatened, too.
“It would be reasonable for Finoia to conclude that a firearm was being pointed at him endangering his life and the lives of other officers nearby. Furthermore, this conclusion would be shared by another reasonable officer faced with the same situation,” he said.
The 20-page report, released by the Inspector General on Friday, outlines the details of the incident and what led up to it.
On Dec. 14, 2022, Gambardella was scheduled to appear in court on a slew of charges, including narcotics sale charges out of New Haven, robbery charges out of New Haven and a criminal mischief charge stemming from East Haven, according to the report.
He did not show up to court and additional charges of failure to appear were added to those cases, in addition to more than $150,000 in bonds and a suspension of his license, the report said.
A few days later, an officer with the FBI-New Haven Safe Street Task Force learned that Gambardella was driving a white Honda Accord with Connecticut registration AA40279 in the town of East Haven and was believed to be in possession of a gun, according to the report.
On the morning of Jan. 5, 2023, Officer Anthony Fiorillo from East Haven police spotted the Honda in the area of Main Street and Forbes Place in East Haven. The vehicle was registered to Gambardella’s girlfriend and was outside of her house, the report said.
When the Honda drove off, the officer followed it onto I-95 and eventually to a Burger King drive-thru at 880 West Main St. in Branford where other officers in marked patrol vehicles converged on the car with emergency lights, according to the report.
Gambardella put the Honda in reverse and nearly struck several officers, the report said.
Officers ordered him to get out of the car but he did not, video shows. Lieutenant Finoia approached the car with his weapon drawn and used his firearm to break the driver-side rear window, according to the report.
“In his statement to inspectors from the Office of Inspector General, he said he did this in order to better see inside the Honda,” which had tinted windows, the report said.
Gambardella then struck several police vehicles and exited the Burger King parking lot with police in pursuit. Officers followed him onto I-95 South where they chased him for about 17 miles until he sped off Exit 36 in Milford. At the end of the exit ramp, he struck a guardrail, got out of the car and ran down an embankment to the travel late of I-95 South with East Haven Lt. Kevin Klarman, Det. John Fraenza and Finoia chasing him, according to the report.
At one point, Gambardella tried to enter a black Chevrolet Malibu, banging on the hood of a woman’s car and shouting at her to get out, the report said.
Klarman told investigators that Gambardella kept running up the grass median “then suddenly slowed, turning toward me,” according to the report.
He said Gambardella reached into the front of his waistband. Fearing that he was retrieving a weapon, specifically a firearm, I yelled to him “Don’t do it” as it led me to believe he was preparing to shoot me,” said Klarman in the report.
Klarman continued to shout “Don’t do it! Don’t (expletive) do it!” as Gambardella raised his arms together as if he were pointing something at Finoia, according to the report.
The report, which included two clips of body camera footage, shows Gambardella aiming his hands toward Finoia as he shouts for him to get on the ground and warns that he will shoot him.
“I shouted for Gambardella to get on the ground and warned I would shoot,” Finoia told investigators. “It appeared as though he was pulling something out of his pants.”
Finoia told investigators that Gambardella locked eyes with him as he reached for something in his pants, according to the report.
“Gambardella then looked directly at me, our eyes locked, and as they did, I could see his eyes widen and he once again put his right hand down the front of his pants all the while keeping his eyes locked with mine,” he said. “I again warned I would shoot, and he started moving his hand straight back up.
“As he pulled his right hand out of his waistband, both his right and left hands met, and he extended them as if he had a firearm and he was pointing it in my direction,” he added, according to the report.
Fraenza was also interviewed for the report and said he thought Gambardella had a gun.
“When he heard the gunshots, he thought they had been fired by Gambardella,” he said, according to the report.
No officers were injured in the incident and Gambardella was not struck or grazed by any of the bullets.
Finoia fired three shots and three bullets were recovered from the scene. No weapon was found with Gambardella, the report said.
Investigators also seized Gambardella’s Honda and allegedly found a crack pipe, cash and fentanyl, according to the report.
Gambardella was interviewed by police inspectors from the Office of Inspector General at the Ansonia-Milford courthouse on June 22, 2023, where he accused officers of opening fire on him at Burger King and ramming their cruisers into his car. Video evidence did not support those claims, the report said.
Investigators also interviewed Gambardella’s girlfriend, who said she had been on the phone with Gambardella during the chase. She said that Gambardella told her that “he would rather be killed by the cops than do the 45 years of prison he had over his head,” according to the report.
Devlin wrote in the report that Finoia had information that Gambardella might be in possession of a firearm and therefore his conclusion that his life, and the lives of others, might be in anger was reasonable.
“The investigation establishes that Lieutenant Finoia used deadly force against Nicholas Gambardella in order to defend himself and other officers from what he reasonably believed was the use of deadly force,” Devlin wrote in the report.
The Office of Inspector General will take no further action regarding the use of force, according to Devlin.
