Sam Gurwitt Photo
Justin Farmer at the Legislative Council.
Hamden Legislative Council member Justin Farmer Tuesday came out in support of activists’ demands that the town spend $50,000 or more to hire an independent investigator to suss out what happened in the April 16 “officer-involved” shooting.
Farmer expressed his support during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline Hamden” program.
“The community is asking us for an independent investigation. That’s something we should do,” Farmer said. “Right now we lack legitimacy.”
Farmer was responding to demands for an independent investigation that came at a Monday night Legislative Council public hearing about the early-morning April 16 incident, in which a Hamden cop pursued an attempted armed robbery complaint into New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood. Along with a Yale cop, the Hamden officer boxed in a red Honda Civic at Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street and started firing 16 or more bullets into the car, in which an unarmed young couple was trapped. Passenger Stephanie Washington was struck by a bullet and went to the hospital for torso and facial injuries.
Monday’s public hearing lasted more than five hours. Activists there called on the council to authorize at least $50,000 for the town’s Police Commission to hire an outside investigator to conduct a probe separate from that currently being done by the state police and New Haven state’s attorney’s office.
Farmer has marched alongside those same activists for years at social justice protests, well before he became a council member.
“For me, it’s not a hard ask,” he said of activists’ independent investigation request. “The budget is a moral document.”
Community organizer Kerry Ellington, who has helped put together daily protests since the shooting, appeared with Farmer on “Dateline Hamden.” She predicted the probe could end up costing as much as $150,000.
She said it’s important for a probe to occur independent of the state’s attorney’s office. She noted that Hamden’s police commission has subpoena power, which would be essential in an independent investigation.
In recent days two New Haven mayoral candidates have debated whether or not the New Haven state’s attorney’s office should oversee the probe or whether it should be transferred to a different jurisdiction’s state’s attorney to avoid a conflict of interest, as happens automatically under law in the case of a fatal officer-involved shooting (such as one that just occurred in Wethersfield). Ellington argued that the public shouldn’t have to rely on any regional state’s attorney’s office to conduct such a probe. She noted that police officers have killed 20 people in Connecticut since 2016, without any cops being “brought to justice as a result.”
“There is no faith in the state’s attorney’s office,” she argued.
Ellington promised that activists will keep up pressure on Farmer and his fellow council members at the body’s next meeting on May 6.
Click on the video below to watch the full interview with Justin Farmer and Kerry Ellington on WNHH FM’s “Dateline Hamden” program.
Previous coverage of this case:
• Hamden Cop Shoots Woman In Newhallville
• Protesters Storm PD Seeking Answers In Officer-Involved Shooting; Officials Mum
• Cop Who Shot Was Trained In New Haven
• Shot-At Man Plans To File Suit; Clerk Describes Original Complaint
• Outrage Over Shooting Shuts Down Streets
• Elicker: Remove Griffin From Shooting Probe
• Post-Shooting, Focus On Suburban Cops
• Griffin Obtains Search Warrant For Shot-Up Honda; Harp Stands By Griffin
• Top Yale Cops Seek To Rebuild Trust
• Public Seeks Independent Probe