MERIDEN, Ct. – The Connecticut State Police arrested a correctional officer who was reportedly involved in a fatal shooting during a road-rage dispute on a state highway earlier this month, authorities said.
William Lucky, 32, an officer at the New Haven Correctional Center, was identified as the suspect who now faces murder charges. He allegedly discharged as many as 18 rounds at Scott Kracke, 49, during a heated Jan. 14 confrontation on I-691 in Meriden. The suspect is also accused of firing several rounds after the victim was already on the ground, the Hartford Courant reported.
The deadly encounter occurred just after 8 p.m. when the two men got into a road-rage feud and cut each other off while driving in heavy traffic on the interstate.
Both vehicles stopped near Exit 2A and each man exited his automobile before launching into a heated argument. During the shouting match, Lucky drew a weapon and opened fire, striking Kracke in the head and torso, according to police.
Kracke’s fiance and friends looked on in horror as he was dying. Lucky’s 3-year-old son and the child’s mother remained inside his Honda Civic at the time of the homicide, reported the Hartford Courant.
Witnesses told police that Lucky stood over Kracke after he fell to the ground and continued to fire “several more rounds in rapid succession.”
Kracke was rushed to Hartford Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Lucky fled the crime scene but finally surrendered to Connecticut State Police on Tuesday, according to the New York Post.
“I didn’t want this,” Lucky allegedly told the woman with him as he got back in the car and started crying. “What the [expletive] did I just do?”
She told police, “Things just happened very fast,” and claimed she “blacked out” when the shots rang out while she was tending to her toddler.
After he surrendered, Lucky told police he fled the scene because his young son was in the car and “he was afraid the other party would come after him,” the Hartford Courant reported, citing a police affidavit.
Lucky was arraigned on the murder charge and is being held on $2.5 million bail. He was subsequently placed on paid administrative leave by the New Haven Correctional Center, where he has worked since December 2018.
AFSCME Local 1565, which represents 1,800 state corrections employees, issued a statement that said the incident is tragic for everyone involved, WVIT-TV News reported.
“At this time, we will allow the investigative process to take place,” President Mike Vargo said.
