Police release more information about suspect who rammed 7 cruisers

By Marcy Jones, Rob Polansky and Dennis Valera

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    WATERBURY, Connecticut (WFSB) — A suspect and seven police officers were sent to the hospital over the weekend after a multi-town car pursuit.

Hannah Casperson, 25, could be charged in the incident on Monday, pending her release from the hospital.

Waterbury police held a news conference at 1:30 p.m. inside of their headquarters.

Police said the suspect has a criminal record and they believe she is connected to dozens of car break-ins in Wolcott where the vehicles’ windows were smashed late last week.

Police said the incident started with a simple traffic stop.

Sunday morning, Waterbury police said they tried to make contact with Casperson.

Officers wanted to talk to Casperson, who was in a white Hummer, about recent thefts in the city.

Cell phone video captured moments when Casperson accelerated and crashed into a police cruiser. Waterbury police released body cam video of that sequence on Monday afternoon.

Video then showed her go into reverse and slam into another police cruiser and a parked car. She took off after that.

Waterbury police said they followed her into Monroe where Casperson reached the intersection of Wheeler Road and the Monroe Turnpike.

There, they said she lost control of the Hummer and crashed.

“As they proceeded into a town, a collision occurred in the area of Route 110 by Wheeler Road resulting in damage to seven Waterbury police cruisers,” said Chief Keith White, Monroe Police Department. “[There was] extensive damage to the white Hummer and damage to a pole in the immediate area.”

Police told Channel 3 that she injured seven officers when she damaged the cruisers.

“Because of the incident, seven of the officers were taken to the local hospital in Bridgeport to be treated for unknown life-threatening injuries at this point,” White said. “The operator of the white hummer was taken into custody. At this point, she’s also down at the hospital being treated for her injuries sustained in the incident.”

Police said they already made one arrest in the 40 Wolcott car break-ins. They identified the suspect as Thomas Crawford.

They said they have reason to believe Casperson was involved.

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