Hartford fire lieutenant arrested after fight at fire scene with captain
Read wriiten statement from Captain Dalton
On Wednesday at around 2 p.m., Michael Patterson, 45, of a High Street, a lieutenant in the Hartford Fire Department, turned himself in to the Hartford Police Department pursuant to an arrest warrant issued for breach of peace in the 2nd-degree.
The arrest resulted followed a police investigation into an incident alleged to have happened at a fire scene on Friday, August 14, at West Morningside Street.
Patterson was on duty at the time and is alleged to have engaged Captain Thomas Dalton, also on-duty, in a physical and verbal altercation. Details of the altercation can be found here.
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Patterson, who is a lieutenant at the Hartford Fire Department, surrendered himself to police on Wednesday on a warrant for second-degree breach of peace.
The arrest comes after an incident at a fire scene on West Morningside Street on Aug. 14. Police said Patterson, who was on duty at the time, got into “a physical and verbal altercation” with the on duty department captain Timothy Dalton.
The fight was reported by residents and fire personnel on the scene.
Steven Goode, Hartford Courant:
The captain, Thomas Dalton, filed a fire department incident report after the altercation. In his report, Dalton said that Patterson, the officer of Ladder Company 4, told his driver to leave the scene of the fire before being released by Dalton. The captain said he didn’t release Patterson because Dalton wasn’t sure if the fire inspector would need help when he arrived at the scene.
According to Dalton’s incident report, Patterson disregarded the order to stay and again began to leave, at which point Dalton repeated that he was not yet released from the scene.
“I stated again, ‘ladder 4 you are not released, I’m going to put this in my report,” Dalton said in the incident report.
Dalton said the fire vehicle came to an abrupt halt, and Patterson charged at him in “an extremely aggressive manner” and threatened him.
