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Correction officer claims self-defense in fatal road-rage clash where he fired more than a dozen rounds
The lawyer for William Lucky, 32, claims the Connecticut correction officer acted in self-defense when he allegedly gunned down another motorist during a heated road rage encounter.
nypost.com
Correction officer claims self-defense in fatal road-rage clash where he fired more than a dozen rounds
By
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Published Jan. 28, 2024, 12:32 p.m. ET
A Connecticut correction officer charged with gunning down an unarmed motorist during a senseless road rage incident claims he acted in self-defense.
William Lucky, 32, feared for his life when he allegedly pumped more than a dozen shots into motorist Scott Kracke during the Jan. 14 encounter on I-691 in Meriden on Jan. 14, his lawyer said in court.
“If someone comes on you and you’re afraid for your life, the law allows you to protect yourself,” defense lawyer Michael Hillis said as Lucky was arraigned on murder charges in court last week, WVIT-TV News reported.
“And, by the way, I think it will come out that he had a baby in a car seat behind him,” Hillis said. “So, I’m gonna protect my baby against anyone who’s gonna try and kill me.”
He said Lucky has “a stellar record,” and said he’s known the jail guard since he was 15.
The fatal encounter unfolded shortly after 8 p.m. on Jan. 14, when Lucky and Kracke got into a road rage beef and cut each other off while driving near Exit 2A on the Connecticut highway, authorities said.
3 Connecticut correction officer William Lucky, 32, acted in self-defense in a fatal road rage incident, his lawyer said. NBC CT
The two pulled over on the side of the road, got out of their vehicles and into a shouting match.
That’s when police said Lucky pulled out a 9 mm Glock and opened fire, striking Kracke in the head and torso — then standing over him and firing “several more rounds in rapid succession.”
Lucky jumped back into his Honda Civic, where his toddler son and the boy’s mother watched in horror, and sped away from the scene, leaving Kracke mortally wounded on the pavement.
3 Scott Kracke, right, was shot dead in a Jan. 14 road rage encounter with correction officer William Lucky. Facebook/Scott Kracke
3 Defense lawyer Michael Hillis says his client, correction officer William Lucky, acted in self-defense during a road rage incident on a Connecticut highway on Jan. 14. NBC CT
The victim’s fiance and friends were also allegedly watching the shooting from their cars.
Lucky, a correction officer at the New Haven Correctional Center since December 2018, later turned himself in to police and was charged with murder.
He was placed on paid administrative leave at the jail and is being held on $2.5 million bail.