Fatal Shoot-Out Warrant Under Wraps

New Haven’s public housing authority provided police with a key to the Mill River Crossing townhouse unit that a drug enforcement regional taskforce raided in the pre-dawn dark — leading to a fatal shoot-out with a civilian, as an 8‑year-old was nearby.

The housing authority provided that key to the cops after being presented with a search warrant that — more than a week after the death of 35-year-old suspect Aaron Freeman and the injuries of two West Haven officers — remains shrouded in mystery.

Elm City Communities President Shenae Draughn confirmed for the Independent earlier this week that the housing authority provided a key that cops used to open the door and access a Mill River Crossing apartment at 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 29. 

As revealed in body camera footage released by the state Office of the Inspector General on Feb. 3, West Haven Officer Robert Rappa opened the door with a key and immediately entered a common area and a hallway, at the end of which police encounter an adult woman. 

The video footage, and a preliminary report also released on Feb. 3 by the inspector general’s office, show how an officer — it’s unclear yet which one — killed Freeman, after Freeman allegedly shot first.

The raid, led by West Haven police, and was conducted by a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Task Force that included officers from West Haven, New Haven, Waterbury, and state police.

Draughn declined to provide any further explanation for why the housing authority gave the police a key for this raid, besides noting that the housing authority was presented with the search warrant. 

She did not say if it is common practice for the housing authority to give keys to police when presented with a warrant, or if there was something exceptional about this case. She also declined to say what was in the warrant that the housing authority received. She also declined to comment on whether or not Freeman was a tenant at Mill River Crossing or any other Elm City Communities complex.

Draughn did provide a statement to the Independent on the day of the shooting, recognizing the trauma of the event for the family involved and for all residents of the apartment complex, and promising to provide support services for residents and to develop a ​“restorative plan” with the complex’s community. She also convened a meeting with Mill River Crossing residents the night of the shooting, but barred the Independent from attending, instead providing a summary afterwards.

In Search Of The Search Warrant

The warrant, meanwhile, still has not been made public — as the Independent found out while trying to cut through a tangle of occasionally conflicting responses and guidance from West Haven police, the state inspector general’s office, and the state court system. 

The document would normally provide reasons officers were looking for Freeman and what they were hoping to find at the Grand Avenue apartment where, police have said, he was not an official resident but instead was in a relationship with the listed tenant.

The warrant may also shed light on why police let themselves in in such a show of force early in the morning to an apartment that had not just Freeman, but also a 32-year-old woman, an 8‑year-old girl, and a 52-year-old grandfather.

The inspector general is the lead investigator on this case. Per state law, the inspector general’s office is designed to promote transparency and accountability when police officers in Connecticut fire their weapons and, in this case, kill a civilian.

But the delayed rollout of information following this Jan. 29 fatal shoot-out reveals the potential drawbacks of this setup. Basic facts that the press are able to obtain relatively quickly when the matter is under local police review, like the name of a person killed, took five days to be made public. Other facts, like a detailed explanation why police were looking for a suspect, still hasn’t come out at all.

So. Here’s what we do know so far about the warrant police were trying to serve on Aaron Freeman on Jan. 29.

The warrant was secured by West Haven police.

West Haven Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Scott Allard said that his department’s street crime unit conducted an investigation of Freeman, ​“which resulted in a search/arrest warrant being signed by a judge for him.”

Allard said that the subject of the warrant and the related investigation was ​“narcotics,” as opposed to a shooting or other violent crime. (Freeman does, however, have one shooting-related felony conviction, from 2020, per online state court records.)

Allard declined to share a copy of the search warrant, arrest warrant, or case number for this case. He noted that the inspector general’s office is leading the investigation of this incident.

He also emphasized that the warrant was both a search and an arrest warrant — information counter to what the inspector general’s office has revealed to date.

Alaine Griffin, a spokesperson for the inspector general’s office, described the warrant as a search warrant. Her office’s preliminary report characterize the warrant as a ​“search and seizure” warrant.

Griffin wrote that the search warrant ​“was for the premises at 719 Grand Avenue, Apartment 105, and the person of Aaron Freeman. It authorized the search for narcotics and evidence related to the sale of narcotics.”

She also said that the warrant was signed by a judge on Jan. 27, and ordered sealed for 14 days. ​“It was during the execution of this search warrant on January 29, 2025 that the officer-involved shooting occurred.”

Griffin and Allard did not say which judge signed the warrant. 

Griffin did not provide any documentation showing that the warrant has been sealed.

She also did not respond to questions about whether or not the inspector general’s office would unseal or advocate for the unsealing of this warrant, given that the suspect is now dead.

Meanwhile, Rhonda Hebert, a spokesperson for Connecticut’s court system, told the Independent that the warrant in this case has not yet been returned to any court.

A clerk in New Haven’s Elm Street courthouse told this reporter that the court does not retain records of unserved warrants, even if they have been initially signed — and even sealed — by a judge. Only after the warrant is returned to the courthouse does the judicial system maintain a record of it.

So, because this warrant has not yet been returned to court, the judicial system has nothing on file, sealed or not.