Officers Placed On Leave In Prisoner-Van Hospitalization; State Cops Take Over Probe

(Updated with police videos) Two city cops were placed on administrative leave and state police Tuesday stepped in to lead an investigation into an incident in which an arrestee suffered serious injuries while the police were transporting him to detention.

Those are among the latest developments in the case of Richard Cox, the 36-year-old man who is hospitalized and reported to be partially paralyzed as a result of flying headfirst against a wall in a police prisoner conveyance van Sunday evening. That happened when the officer driving the van stopped abruptly to avoid a car crash. 

“We will do anything we need to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson said at a press conference held Tuesday afternoon at police headquarters. ​“This was a horrible thing that happened to this man.”

Officials announced that Officer Oscar Diaz is one of the officers who was placed on paid administrative leave. 

Diaz was driving the prisoner transport van carrying Cox, who had just been arrested on a weapons charge by a Lilac Street block party. Diaz slammed on the brakes to avoid a car crash while driving 36 miles per hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone near Mansfield and Division Streets, officials said. Cox, in the back of the van, flew forward and hit his head, severely injuring his neck and spine. The van did not have seat belts.

Cox, handcuffed and wearing a ​“No Deal” shirt, kicked and banged his body against a wall of the wagon before flying head first into the front wall. After the abrupt stop and his subsequent injury, he lay crumpled on the floor of the transport van, his head facing the front of the vehicle. ​“Help!” he called.

Diaz stopped the car to check on Cox and quickly realized he had been hurt. He then called for an ambulance. But he instructed the ambulance to meet him at the 1 Union Ave. lock-up —- rather than follow department policy requiring him to wait at the scene for the ambulance to arrive and check the prisoner, according to Jacobson.

Sgt. Betsy Segui, who was supervising the detention center at 1 Union Ave., is also now on leave.

At the lock-up, officers at first urged the prisoner to get out the van alone, which he couldn’t.

“Can you roll to your right side?” said one officer. ​“Roll to your side.”

They carried him out of the van.

“Stand up. Get up,” an officer said.

“He drank too much,” offered another.

“Stretch out. Sit up!” commanded Sgt. Segui.

The officers placed Cox into a wheelchair into the detention facility. He was processed and wheeled to a cell, where he remained until the ambulance crew arrived to take him to the hospital.

According to the most available information, Cox remains in the hospital, partially paralyzed.

Both Diaz and Segui are veteran police officers, having joined the New Haven Police Department in 2008.

“I’m troubled,” Jacobson said after showing reporters the video footage. ​“I believe there’s an attempt to help him at first. I’m troubled by the rest of it. That is not what our job is to do. Our job is to protect and help people.”

The police department has three prisoner transport vans. Only one had seat belts before Tuesday. The van that Cox was transported in Sunday night did not have seatbelts, but instead had straps attached to the vehicle wall that prisoners can hold onto with their hands cuffed behind their backs while the car is in motion.

The department subsequently took the two seatbelt-less transport vehicles off the road. It has since installed seat belts in a second van and put that one on the road as well. 

Jacobson also said that police believe Cox was intoxicated at the time of his arrest and transport on Sunday. That’s because the arresting officers found a ​“bottle of booze” on him on Lilac Street.

Does the police department have a different protocol for transporting arrestees who appear to be intoxicated? Or are those people supposed to be put in the back of a seatbelt-less van and told to hold on?

“If someone was drunk to the point of passing out or can’t stand up, we would call a rescue [ambulance crew], even if they’re under arrest,” Jacobson said. He said the department also has a protocol in place for, if somebody’s ​“combative,” officers can call for a police cruiser with ​“an easier transport box that’s a little safer.” 

He added that, ​“as soon as possible,” the department is going to put together a new standard operating procedure (SOP) that will state that, if an arrestee is being combative and the officers can’t get that person in the wagon and strapped in in a seatbelt, then the officers should call for an individual cruiser with a ​“backseat in close quarters.”

Acting Chief Regina Rush-Kittle said the department’s internal affairs investigation has been placed on hold pending the completion of the state police probe.

Mayor Justin Elicker said the actions taken by officers Sunday evening ​“do not reflect the New Haven Police Department as a whole.” He also described some of the officers’ actions as shown in Sunday’s body cam videos ​“concerning.”

Officials showed video footage of the incident at the press conference. They released those videos to the media on Tuesday. (See below.)

The police union president declined to comment for this story.

Body Cam & Transport Videos

On Tuesday evening, the police department released to reporters six videos that show parts of Sunday evening’s events. Those videos include the arrest of Cox on Lilac Street, Diaz’s driving of Cox in the transport van, and his detention in a cell at 1 Union Ave. Below are all six videos in full.

Warning: The second video below, entitled ​“6 / 19 / 22 New Haven Police Transport Video,” contains graphic footage of Cox flying headfirst against the transport van wall and sustaining an injury to his spine.

Timeline Of Events

Also during Tuesday’s press conference, Jacobson provided a detailed timeline of Sunday night’s events.

At 7:36 p.m., he said, police received a 911 call about a ​“weapons complaint” in the area of Lilac Street.

At 8:04 p.m., Cox was seen walking west on Lilac Street towards a group of officers. They stopped him, detained him, took a gun off of his person, and handcuffed him, all ​“without incident,” Jacobson said. 

At 8:13 p.m., officers took Cox by police cruiser over to the Winchester Avenue substation.

At 8:30 p.m., Officer Diaz pulled up in the transport wagon.

At 8:33 p.m., officers moved Cox into the back of the transport wagon. ​“He does threaten the officers at that point,” Jacobson said. One can hear in the body cam video an officer say, ​“Watch your heard,” Jacobson said.

At 8:36 p.m. ​“the vehicle stops quickly and Mr. Cox is thrown to the front of the vehicle.”

At 8:38 p.m., Diaz asked Cox what was wrong and if he was OK. Diaz says, ​“Hold on. I can’t pull over right now,” Jacobson said.

At 8:40 p.m., Diaz stopped the transport wagon, opened the door, and asked Cox what happened. That’s when Coz says, ​“I can’t move,” according to Jacobson. Diaz then called for an ambulance to meet them at the detention center at 1 Union Ave.

At 8:41 p.m., Diaz closed the transport wagon door and proceeded to drive to the detention facility.

At 8:45 p.m., the transport van arrived at the detention facility. Diaz can be heard in his body cam video talking with Segui about how Cox had fallen in the wagon when he stopped to avoid a car crash. 

At 8:48 p.m., several officers remove Cox from the back of the wagon. ​“He’s held up because he’s not able to stand,” Jacobson said.

At 8:53 p.m., ​“he’s processed while sitting in a wheelchair.”

At 8:54 p.m., ​“he slides down in the wheelchair and they pull him up,” Jacobson said. ​“He says at that point, ​‘I think I broke my neck.’ ”

At 8:55 p.m., Jacobson said, two officers carried Cox into a holding cell and put him on the ground.

At 8:58 p.m., an AMR ambulance crew arrived. AMR personnel are then seen assessing Cox in the detention facility’s ​“holding tank.”

At 9:12 p.m., the ambulance then leaves with Cox from the detention facility for the hospital.

An earlier version of this story follows.

Prisoner Hospitalized After Cop-Van Ride

A 36-year-old man arrested by the police was injured badly enough on the ride to detention that he had to go to the hospital and receive surgery, and may end up paralyzed.

That occurred Sunday.

Officials held a press conference at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. Monday evening to release information about what happened.

It began with the arrest of a New Haven man named Richard Cox on weapons charges related to an incident on Lilac Street in Newhallville, officials said. 

Acting Police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle said police received a 911 call ​“regarding a weapons complaint” at around 7:29 p.m. The investigation conducted by responding officers ultimately led to Cox. 

Rush-Kittle said that Cox illegally possessed a handgun and was ​“uncooperative” with officers. He was subsequently arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm and first-degree threatening, among other charges.

Cox was placed in a police transportation wagon to be taken to the detention center at 1 Union Ave. His hands were cuffed behind his back. No officers were in the back with him; the driver was the only other person in the vehicle.

The driver allegedly hit the brakes hard en route to avoid a car accident, Rush-Kittle said. That occurred at Mansfield and Division Streets.

The hard stop — or ​“evasive maneuver,” as Rush-Kittle put it — caused Cox to be injured. Badly. 

Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson said Cox hit his head while in the back of the transport wagon, and he may suffer paralysis.

Cox let the officer driving the van know he was ​“injured and could not move,” Rush-Kittle said. Cox ​“reportedly made this known to other officers upon his arrival at the detention facility” at 1 Union Ave., as well.

At 1 Union Ave., officers initially tried to bring Cox into the lock-up facility in a wheelchair. That didn’t work, so they carried him, according to Rush-Kittle.

Jacobson said that Cox was ​“briefly” held in a cell at the detention center. That’s where American Medical Response (AMR) emergency responders initially treated him for his injury.

The ambulance crew then took Cox to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He had been in the detention facility 10 to 15 minutes before being brought to the hospital, officials said.

The NHPD has three prisoner transport vans. One has seat belts; the other two have no seat belts. Cox was inside one of the vans without seat belts. That van instead has hooks on the wall that a prisoner can hold onto, while their hands are cuffed behind their back, as they are transported to detention.

The department is taking those two vans without seat belts off the road for now, Jacobson said. ​“We will sideline those until we get the right solution. We don’t want this to happen again.”

Jacobson said department policy holds that drivers are supposed to stop upon learning a prisoner is injured and call for medical attention immediately. This driver instead drove the distance to the lock-up with the intention of meeting with medical help there.

The department has launched an internal investigation into the incident. It has also contacted the state’s attorney’s office and state inspector general.

Jacobson, Rush-Kittle and Mayor Elicker said they were in contact with Cox’s family. They expressed regret and said they wish Cox a speedy recovery.

They also promised to release video footage related to the incident by the end of the afternoon Tuesday.

“When someone is injured in police custody,” Elicker said, ​“it is a very serious matter.”

Paul Bass contributed to this story.