Here he is boys! And he still has quite a following of supporters as I see by his wall. Good for them all, he needs all the support he can get.
I'm glad that the judge is being so harsh, he's right in the fact that this ordeal could have been devastatingly worse, in fact, it's almost a miracle it wasn't.
Again, my baby sister, mom, and grandmother all missed being in that chaos by only a minute or two.
Police: Box-trucker driver on PCP during East Side rampage
STAMFORD -- The city man who stole a box-truck from his employer and went on a destructive and violent drive through the East Side last month had drugs in his system when he was transported to Stamford Hospital, court records show.
Based on initial toxicology tests, police accident investigators believe Christopher Simonelli, 30, of Frederick Street, was on PCP during the alleged Nov. 16 rampage, which ended when he smashed into the side of a school bus carrying 27 Stamford High School students, injuring 12 of them.
Following a weeks-long investigation, Simonelli was arrested Thursday morning on a litany of felony charges, including several first-degree assault offenses and 25 counts of risk of injury to a minor.
Simonelli had been acting irrationally at his workplace before the incident, "posing topless" at work at one point, court papers show.
He stole the truck from his employer Action Letter, Inc., on Elm Court at 2:22 p.m. and then raced through the CTTransit bus maintenance facility there, police said.
The truck crashed through the rear gate of the CTTransit property, then hurtled north on Myrtle Avenue before turning west on East Main Street.
The accidents shut down a quarter-mile stretch of East Main Street from Glenbrook Road to Myrtle Avenue until 7:15 p.m., causing major gridlock throughout the downtown area.
A bearded Simonelli, who suffered life-threatening injuries and was extricated from the box-truck with power tools, made his court appearance in a wheelchair with a cut over his left eye and his right hand bandaged.
Defense attorney Lindy Urso said Simonelli broke both his legs in the series of car crashes. A search warrant included in his court file details his injuries, among them a broken right wrist, right thigh and right ankle.
State Superior Court Judge Richard Comerford ordered Simonelli be held on $150,000 bond, $50,000 higher than the amount requested by prosecutors.
Police arranged for Simonelli to be held at the University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington, a secure facility at which he can begin rehabilitating his serious injuries.
"This could have been many counts of manslaughter," Comerford said, explaining his reasons for increasing the bond amount. "This is a very serious matter."
A 15-year-old was seriously injured when Simonelli allegedly crashed into a car driven by her relatives, police said. She was originally transported to Stamford Hospital in critical condition because of a serious head injury, but her condition was quickly upgraded. She suffered a large cut to the left side of her head, above her left eye, that required 10 stitches and will likely leave a scar, court papers said.
A witness who followed Simonelli during his destructive drive told police he would accelerate after smashing into each car, saying that Simonelli was intentionally crashing into other vehicles, court papers show. The witness said Simonelli tried to reverse the box-truck after hitting a full-sized school bus, but the vehicle stalled because of extensive damage.
Three of the high school students on the bus were seriously injured. A male student who sat at the point of impact fractured his left shoulder blade. A female student lost consciousness as a result of the impact and kept passing out after Simonelli's alleged rampage. A second male student suffered a concussion in the crash and was told to refrain from sports for two weeks, court papers said.
Officers interviewed Simonelli's boss at Action Letter, Inc., Ellen Connery, an arrest warrant affidavit shows. She told police she saw Simonelli standing by his work station without his shirt sometime before the alleged rampage.
At one point, he took the keys for the truck and left the Elm Court business. She was unaware of any problems or arguments with Simonelli. In a follow-up interview, she said Simonelli was afraid of losing his job, but she had assured him he was not going to be laid off.
In addition to the initial drug tests, Stamford police investigators had a department mechanic inspect the box-truck. The mechanic could not check several objects because they were damaged, but he concluded the truck was well-maintained.
Simonelli is due back in court Jan. 11.
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