West Haven Officer Robert Rappa's body-worn camera footage. Note: Videos show graphic violence.
West Haven police had been following Aaron Freeman for seven months — setting up controlled buys of crack cocaine, watching him allegedly come and go from a Mill River Crossing apartment rented by a woman he appeared to be in a relationship with.
That drug-focused investigation culminated with an early-morning raid of the Grand Avenue residence that led to the cops’ seizure of nearly $6,600 in cash, multiple cellphones, and dozens of pills and baggies filled with white and tan powder substances.
That raid also sparked a shoot-out between police and Freeman, 35, in front of an 8‑year-old girl, a 32-year-old woman, and a 52-year-old grandfather, killing Freeman and injuring two West Haven cops.
The drug raid and fatal shoot-out started at 5:34 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29 in one of the townhouse apartments at Mill River Crossing, a Grand Avenue apartment complex run by the city’s public housing authority.
The shoot-out is being investigated by the state Office of the Inspector General, which released a preliminary report and several video clips from officer-worn body cameras five days after the incident, as required by state law.
The preliminary report offered a look at what happened during the shoot-out. It stated that West Haven police — as part of a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) regional task force — were trying to serve a narcotics-focused search warrant that listed Freeman and the Grand Avenue address in question. The videos showed police bang on the front door, let themselves in with a key, and encounter a 32-year-old woman and Freeman before eventually shooting and killing Freeman, after Freeman allegedly fired at police first.
The report did not offer any details as to exactly what West Haven police were looking for when they showed up to the Grand Avenue townhouse in the pre-dawn dark. Nor did it describe the investigation that informed why they wanted to search that apartment for illegal drugs in the first place.
Detailed answers to those questions are included in the text of the original 11-page search warrant that West Haven police sought to serve during that Jan. 29 raid gone wrong.
On Wednesday, the Independent obtained a copy of that warrant, after the inspector general’s office returned the relevant paperwork to New Haven’s state courthouse, thereby making the document accessible to the public and press.
A state judge signed the search warrant, written by West Haven Police Officers Robert Rappa and Nicolas Abate, on Jan. 27. It lists Aaron Freeman as the subject of the warrant and the Grand Avenue townhouse as the subject’s address. And it states police had probable cause to believe they’d find cocaine and related packaging materials, money, cellphones, guns, and other documents and materials related to sale of narcotics.
The narrative portion of the warrant states that, in July, West Haven police’s street crime unit obtained information from a “credible and reliable informant” regarding two men who were allegedly selling crack cocaine and fentanyl in West Haven and New Haven.
Over the course of the investigation, West Haven police would identify one of those men as Freeman.
Police oversaw multiple “controlled purchases” of crack cocaine from Freeman in both West Haven and New Haven, with the help of the informant. They identified two cars Freeman allegedly used during these illegal drug transactions — a white Honda Accord registered to the 32-year-old woman who was the registered tenant at the Mill River Crossing apartment, and a black Infinity FX35 registered to Freeman’s mom in Waterbury.
Through the Honda Accord’s registration, police learned about the 32-year-old woman’s Grand Avenue address — which, months later, would become the site of the fatal police shoot-out.
Police staked out the Grand Avenue apartment. On multiple occasions, they saw the two cars parked within walking distance. “More than once while conducting surveillance, a male matching the description of Suspect #1 [Freeman] was observed walking to and/or from” the Grand Avenue apartment.
Over the course of a week in mid-November, West Haven street crime unit officers and the informant made controlled purchases of crack cocaine from Freeman. The informant would call the relevant phone number for requesting a meetup to buy crack. Police observed Freeman leave the Grand Avenue address soon after that call was made. The informant met up with Freeman, and then later provided police with with the crack he had allegedly bought from the suspect.
West Haven police didn’t identify Freeman by name until a traffic stop on Jan. 15, when Officer Abate was working patrol, saw the suspect Honda Accord from this case, pulled over the car (which also allegedly had “illegally tinted windows”), and identified the driver as the 32-year-old woman with the Grand Avenue apartment and the passenger as Freeman.
Between Jan. 20 and Jan. 27, West Haven police street crime unit officers met with the informant to make more controlled purchases of crack from Freeman. Again, the informant called the relevant phone number, Freeman was observed leaving the Grand Avenue address, and the informant was able to buy crack from Freeman.
Freeman was not listed as a tenant on the lease for the Grand Avenue apartment, according to what Officer Rappa heard from the building’s management. Instead, the listed tenants included the 32-year-old woman and two children.
Rappa and Abate concluded by laying out their justification for the judge to sign off on the search warrant. Through their training and experience in narcotics law enforcement, they wrote, they know that “those engaged in the trafficking of narcotics, specifically ‘crack’ cocaine, will maintain an ample supply of this controlled substance in an area which is easily accessible so that the ‘crack’ cocaine is at all times available to their customers.”
They also know that “those engaged in narcotics trafficking will often times possess or maintain in a close proximity weapons such as firearms and ammunition to protect the narcotics and the monies derived from the sale of these narcotics from rival dealers and substance addicted customers.” Freeman also had a 2017 shooting-related felony conviction.
So, the officers believed that there was probable cause for the issuance of a search and seizure warrant for the Grand Avenue townhouse and for Aaron Freeman in relation to the alleged sale of narcotics.
The final page of the warrant lists what police found and seized when they searched the Grand Avenue apartment on the morning of the fatal shoot-out with Freeman.
According to that warrant, some of what police found at the apartment included:
• $6,598 in cash.
• Two clear sandwich bags containing a total of 42 small red-tinted zip-lock bags containing “an off-white rock/chunk substance.”
• A clear sandwich bag containing a half dozen “white wax folds,” some bearing a “White Claw” logo, some bearing an eagle logo, all containing a “tan colored powder substance.”
• One pill bottle with 45 whole white pills and four broken white pills with a “K18” stamped on them.
• A clear sandwich bag containing 105 white wax folds with a blue “M30” stamp on them, each containing a tan powder substance.
• A clear sandwich bag containing 45 white wax folds, variously stamped with the words “White Claw,” “Smile,” “Skittles,” and an eagle logo, and all containing an off-white powder substance.
• Several cellphones and other electronic devices, including a black Apple iPhone, a black TCL flip phone, a pink Apple iPhone, and a pink HMD barbie flip phone.
In a related search of the black Infinity FX35 car, meanwhile, police seized 11 more red-tinted zip lock bags containing off-white rock/chunk substance; two white wax folds with a “smile” stamp, one white wax fold with a “skittles” stamp, three white wax folds with a “White Claw” stamp, two white wax folds with an eagle symbol, and six white wax folds, all containing an off-white powder substance; and two digital scales, among other items.
The Independent also obtained on Wednesday a separate 10-page search warrant written by state police inspectors Steven Hunt and Frank Capozzi on Jan. 29. That post-shooting warrant shows what police were looking for and found as they investigated the Grand Avenue address as a crime scene after the fatal exchange of gunfire between Freeman and the DEA task force officers.
The officers were searching for firearms, shell casings, projectiles, blood, saliva, fluids, and other evidence related to Freeman’s alleged “criminal attempt at murder” — even though Freeman is now dead.
According to that warrant, the state investigators found, among other evidence,:
• Six SPEER 9mm Luger fired cartridge casings in the first-floor stairs, hallway, and closet;
• Four WIN 9mm Luger fired cartridge casings from the first floor hallway and bathroom;
• Five Federal 40 S&W fired cartridge casings and two Federal 40 S&W live rounds in the first floor bedroom; and
• A black and purple Glock 27 40 Caliber semi-automatic pistol with a “stove piped Federal 40 S&W live round.”