1 Arrested After Ramming Braintree Police Crusier: Police

BRAINTREE, MA — An Easton man was arrested after Braintree police said he intentionally crashed his car into a police cruiser on Granite Street and injured an officer. Gregory Venezia, 28, was charged with attempt to commit a crime to wit murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, destruction of property, possession of a dangerous weapon and several traffic violations.

On Wednesday afternoon, police were told from local police in another community to be on the look out for Venezia, the subject of an investigation in another community. Police said Venezia had threatened to harm others and himself.

Around 4:40 p.m., police said they saw Venezia driving a gray Honda Civic on Granite St. As officers tried to pull him over, he sped away, according to police.

Officers chased Venezia up Granite Street until he was met by another two police cruisers coming from the other direction. Then Venezia crossed over to their side of the road and accelerated to intentionally strike the cruisers, police said.

Both officers tried to evade the crash to avoid a serious collision, and Venezia crashed into the rear of one of the cruisers which caused it to spin out of control, police said. Police said Venezia lost control and struck a concrete pole in the 300th block of Granite Street.

Venezia was arrested and taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Police said they searched his car and found two knives. The officer involved in the crash was treated for minor injuries, but Police Chief Mark Dubois lauded his officers for preventing more serious injuries from occurring.

"This was great work by our officers to not only avoid a collision that could have been much more serious, but to also shield anyone else from potentially coming into harm's way," Dubois said. "We often don't know what will happen when we put on this uniform every day, and thankfully our injured officer is going to be okay and no one else was hurt in this incident."

Venezia will be arraigned at a later date.