Bodycam Footage Shows Windsor Locks Police Officers Struck By Car

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — A Windsor Locks woman with "a long history of aggressive behavior" faces numerous charges after she struck two police officers with her vehicle Tuesday afternoon while attempting to flee from a welfare check.

Around 5 p.m., the officers were dispatched to a house on Arbor Street to meet with a representative from Community Health Resources who was initiating a welfare check on Erica Verona, 22. While speaking with the woman, "she abruptly moved to her vehicle parked in the driveway," claiming she was "getting her vape pen," Lt. Paul Cherniack said.

Verona started the car, a white Hyundai Elantra, and one of the officers, concerned for her mental health and the possibility she was reaching for a weapon, intervened and attempted to shut the vehicle off. Verona then struck the officer in the forehead with the vape pen, causing a heavily-bleeding laceration, Cherniack said.

As Verona attempted to put the car in gear, the second officer arrived at the driver's side door. Verona shifted the Hyundai into reverse and accelerated at a high rate of speed, striking both officers with the driver's side door as she sped out of the driveway, Cherniack said.

Bodycam footage of the incident from three different officers was released to Patch by police, as seen below.

Both officers were taken to Hartford Hospital for treatment of lacerations and bruises, then released, Cherniack said.

An alert about Verona was relayed to all area police departments, and Enfield police located her in the parking lot of CVS Pharmacy on Route 5, where she was taken into custody without incident, Cherniack said.

Verona was charged with two counts each of assault on a police officer, interfering with an officer and first-degree reckless endangerment, as well as a single count of second-degree breach of peace.

She is currently being detained at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic in lieu of $350,000 bond, according to Department of Correction records. She is due back in court July 1.