FARMINGTON — An Incident Review Team found that local police officer Ryan Rosie acted within the scope of departmental policy when he shot and killed a local man in November 2011.
The finding came on the heals of a report from the Maine Office of the Attorney General on Monday. That report said Rosie was justified in the use of deadly force against Justin Crowley-Smilek, 28, of Farmington, who came at Rosie in a threatening manner with a large knife. The incident occurred in the parking lot of the Farmington Municipal Building, which then housed the Farmington Police Station. Crowley-Smilek died at the scene.
The team found that Rosie, a rookie officer, reacted to a deadly force situation in the same manner a trained veteran police officer would have reacted.
Rosie graduated from college in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and took the 100-hour pre-service school at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. He also had an eight-week field officer training course and was schooled in the use of firearms. At the time of the shooting, he was scheduled to attend the basic law enforcement course at the state academy in January.
After reviewing the facts in the case, the Incident Review Team recommended that Rosie attend the academy. The team also recommended that the Farmington Police Department continue with its current standard operating procedures.
Making up the team were Rebecca Ryder, chief executive officer of Franklin Memorial Hospital; Scott Landry, owner of Shiretown Insurance Co. in Farmington; Sgt. Frank Soule of the Falmouth Police Department; Lt. Donald Pomelow of Maine State Police Troop C; and Chief Scott Nichols of the Carrabassett Valley Police Department.
The team’s report said Rosie tried to keep a police cruiser between himself and Crowley-Smilek as he moved toward the officer with a knife, saying he’d “better kill” him. The report said Rosie had initially drawn his Taser and his service weapon but holstered the Taser immediately. Rosie later told investigators that he remembered from his training, that he was “not to use a less lethal option during a deadly force confrontation,” according to the report.
Rosie fired his gun “seven times center mass at Justin until the threat was neutralized. Justin continued his forward attack toward Rosie but eventually fell near the front of the cruiser where Rosie had been.”
According to the investigation, 4 minutes elapsed between a phone call Crowley-Smilek made to a dispatcher from outside the Farmington office and the officer-needs-assistance call Rosie made into his lapel microphone.
Investigators found seven spent shell casings at the scene. Four rounds were left in the magazine of Rosie’s service weapon with one round still in the chamber, the report said.
“Justin sustained six wounds from the five rounds that struck him,” according to the report. “Two of the rounds fired missed Justin, one of which struck the trunk of the cruiser, the other hitting a parked van in the (University of Maine at Farmington) parking lot west of the scene.”
Investigators also found the knife that had been either kicked or thrown a distance from where Crowley-Smilek had fallen.
Investigators determined that Crowley-Smilek had made two calls to dispatchers from his phone that morning. One is believed to have been from McDonald’s restaurant, but the caller would not tell dispatchers where he was or what his name was. The second was made from the phone outside the Municipal Building.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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