Aliyya Swaby Photo
Fair Haven’s newest walking-beat cops helped a woman gain the confidence to seek protection against her abuser — and then continued to follow up with her and her family.
Officers Lizmarie Almedina and Eduardo Leonardo (pictured) were called to handle their first major domestic violence case since they started walking the neighborhood beat in late January. They received a call just after 8:30 a.m. the Wednesday before last from a woman at Farnam Courts. The pregnant mother of two said she had been assaulted by her male partner.
The pair headed over to the public housing apartment to investigate. When they arrived, the man was nowhere to be found. The woman said she did not need help getting medical attention, that she would go to the hospital for treatment for her assault wounds on her own. And she was “hesitant at first” to speak to the officers about what exactly had happened, Leonardo said.
“When it’s domestic violence, we don’t have much discretion as officers. We have to act,” he said.
But he realized that a more delicate approach was necessary to “bring [the woman’s] defenses down” and get her to feel more comfortable confiding in the police. Almedina said she tried to convince the woman to talk with them for the benefit of her own children. She used her experience as the mother of a 12-year-old son to try to connect with the woman.
“We tried to make her understand that her safety and the safety of her children was important,” she said. Although Almedina had never been in a similar situation, deciding whether to bring charges against an abusive partner, she told the woman that her son was her own “number-one priority.” After that, the woman “was more open,” agreed to give a statement, and described the situation in great detail, Almedina said. They told her they could help her apply for a restraining order against the man.
The next day, the officers received a tip from a neighbor who had seen the man and the woman going to Yale-New Haven Hospital together. The officers contacted their supervisors and the detectives headed to the hospital to interview the man, before placing him under arrest.
Almedina and Leonardo talked with the woman by phone every day afterwards in order to check in on her and see how she was feeling. The woman was “appreciative” that the officers had helped her remove the man, who had a history of violence, Leonardo said.
The Yale Child Study Center and state Department of Children and Families also followed up regularly with the family. The woman is now recovering and “feeling better,” Leonardo said.
The officers also talked by phone with the woman’s mother, who called them “because she was worried” about her daughter after the assault. Almedina and Leonardo said they had never dealt with a domestic violence case that resulted in more severe injuries or that had to be referred to the detectives bureau.
Although he was not involved with the case past the arrest, Leonardo said he learned that officers’ actions on the ground can drastically change the direction of an incident. What helped them the most was their ability to be “a little more patient” with the woman, to “allow them to feel you out a little bit and gain trust so they can speak freely,” he said.