1 Week Later, Rally Protests Police Shooting

A week to the hour after a fatal confrontation between police and 36-year-old New Havener Jebrell Conley, protesters gathered at the car wash where the shooting took place — to criticize law enforcement for how they handled last Thursday’s attempted arrest, and to describe Conley as more than just his criminal record.

Roughly 50 people gathered for that protest Thursday afternoon at around 5 p.m. at the Splash Car Wash at 2 Boston Post Rd., just over the New Haven border in West Haven.

That’s where, on Sept. 19, Conley appeared to fire first at — and was then shot and killed by — New Haven Violent Crime Task Force officers trying to serve an arrest warrant stemming from a July robbery during which Conley and others allegedly hit and shot a man in Hamden as they stole his drugs and money.

Three of the 11 police officers — including two city cops — shot at Conley during last week’s fatal encounter. The state Office of the Inspector General and state police are investigating the case.

At the rally — which included a march to Conley’s childhood home in the Hill and then to New Haven police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. — protesters demanded that the three officers who shot Conley be fired. They also called for the release of all body camera footage and radio transmissions documenting the shooting, and for the abolition of the Violent Crime Task Force that sought to carry out the arrest.

Multiple speakers on Thursday questioned why police chose to carry out the arrest in a public place, instead of through Conley’s probation officer or at his residence. They called out what they saw as a lack of effort to de-escalate the situation before the shooting.

“The police could have chosen a nonviolent alternative if their true intention was to serve a warrant, but they chose violence,” said Kerry Ellington, an organizer of Thursday’s protest. ​“Nothing justifies the police killing Jebrell, nothing justifies their recklessness and the violence that they engineered last week.”

Nigel Harris, another protester, said he saw Conley’s death as one of many examples nationwide of police treating Black people as ​“disposable.”

In a follow-up phone interview, Police Chief Karl Jacobson said that attempts were made to reach Conley at his home and through his probation officer before the arrest and that he had gone into hiding, possibly after being tipped off on his indictment.

He explained that police officers’ urgency to arrest Conley came from a desire to protect the witnesses and victims of the July 3 robbery in Hamden that Conley allegedly carried out. Jacobson has also pointed out that Conley was a long-time member of the Grape Street Crips who spent much of his adult life in and out of prison, including a five-year sentence following a 2016 federal drug conviction.

Jacobson told the Independent that officers initially found Conley outside his car, which was a safer place to arrest him than if he had been inside the car. However, Conley retreated to inside his car and apparently retrieved his gun — a stolen firearm with an extended magazine — when officers tried to arrest him. The police chief also said that the full body camera footage — which will be released after the state inspector general finishes their investigation — would provide a clearer picture of police acting appropriately. 

Meanwhile, the rally crowd on Thursday also featured more than a dozen family members of Conley’s, who used the gathering as an opportunity to mourn a loved one and try to highlight the man he was beyond his difficult upbringing and criminal history.

Ashley Daniels, a cousin of Conley’s, said that throughout her childhood — which included a stint in foster care — he made sure to always check on her, regardless of what was going on in his life.

“Jebrell is someone who worked extremely hard to rebuild his image,” Daniels said. ​“I just wish people could have seen and respected the gentleman, the great father, the great cousin, the loyal person that he was.”

Paris Battle, another attendee, and the aunt of Conley’s kids, said that he had been ​“like a brother” to her for more than 20 years and that he was a good father to his two children.

“His kids are out here with pins on [mourning him], and they’re young. They got futures. They deserve to have their father with them,” Battle said.