Allan Appel Photo
Chief Higgins, at right, speaks with East Rocker resident Mark Aronson.
The Yale Police Department’s chief, assistant chief and two community officers showed up at Monday night’s East Rock Community Management Team meeting in the wake of a shooting last week in which one of their own pulled the trigger.
Although they came with no new details — the State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin is taking the lead on releasing information about the investigation into the shooting— the YPD brass brought a heartfelt acknowledgement that trust and legitimacy are at risk of being lost, may already have been lost. And they want to be part of retrieving it.
YPD Chief Ronnell Higgins conveyed that message to two dozen management team members at their usual meet-up spot, the mActivity Fitness Center on Nicoll Street.
Asst YPD Chief Steven Woznyk listens.
It was the first community management team he has attended (he has been away on leave for personal family reasons) since last Tuesday’s incident, which has scared and outraged minority communities in both New Haven and Hamden. A Hamden officer and a Yale officer fired at least 16 rounds into a Honda Civic in Newhallville while two unarmed young people cowered inside. One of them, Stephanie Washington, ended up hit, treated at the hospital for torso and facial injuries. The Yale officer who filled, Terrance Pollack, was injured as well.
Higgins brought with him to the meeting YPD Asst. Chief Steven Woznyk and the YPD’s two community engagement officers, Martin Parker and Martha Cedeno-Ross.
Read about the shooting and its aftermath here and here.
When a commiserating friend told him that at least “no one had died in the incident, I disagreed. No one died, but something was lost,” Higgins recalled.
Higgins characterized that as feelings and attitudes of trust and legitimacy in the relationship between community and police, and he committed the YPD to be part of the solution. “This CMT is part of that,” he said.
East Rock District Manager lt. Manmeet Colon and LCI Specialist Linda Davis.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked Higgins if, while the state is heading the investigation, the YPD is doing its own investigation.
“Absolsutely,” Higgins replied, although he said it is the state’s attorney who has all the relevant information to make decisions at this point.
East Rock/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter reminded Higgins that lots of people in the neighborhood — “on both sides of the hill” — are traumatized by the event. Winter has visited homes on the block of Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street where the two officers —- New Haven trained Hamden Police officer Devin Eaton and YPD Officer Pollock — sprayed the vehicle in question with bullets.
“There’s concern and confusion about the role of the Yale police,” Winter said.
East Rock resident Kevin McCarthy asked if Hamden police dispatch had contacted New Haven dispatch about heading over to Dixwell and Argyle in response to Hamden Officer Devin Eaton’s original call.
Alders Steve Winter and Abby Roth.
Winter said he had learned that they had not.
There was no hostility in the room toward the YPD, and the visit was courteously greeted. Several residents in attendance expressed appreciation for the fairly regular presence of the YPD in the East Rock neighborhood, where so many Yale students and Yale-connected people live.
Still, Higgins reiterated what was at stake: “We hold our officers to the highest standards. To have people doubt the professionalism of the PD is concerning.”
He added that, pending the investigations, he is not drawing any conclusions about officer conduct except to say that no matter the ultimate findings, both “direct and indirect trauma” has taken place in the community.
“We work so very hard to build trust every single day. We have to regain all that,” he added.
Before the meeting concluded, Alder Winter pressed him on a related issue: New Haven’s newly reconstituted Civilian Review Board, which city alders created earlier this year.
“In January, we called for a memorandum of understanding between the YPD [and the city] regarding complaints,” Winter reminded him.
“We’ll talk to counsel,” and get you that, Higgins replied.
“You’re not aware [of any of that in the works]?
“We’ve got a lot going on,” replied Higgins.
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