Thomas Breen photo
State police at scene of Greenwich Avenue shooting.
A newly available state report about an “officer-involved shooting” reveals that last week wasn’t the first time a 22-year-old city man led cops on a chase.
When they caught him this time in Kimberly Square, he broke free. He fired at least one shot; officers fired numerous bullets. He fled.
When cops found him again, he had shed his jacket and pants — and claimed to be a robbery victim. A telltale tattoo gave him away.
These details came to light in a state police investigative report attached to an arrest warrant regarding the officer-involved shooting in Kimberly Square in the late afternoon of Jan. 8. The report appeared Thursday in the 22-year-old suspect’s court file at Superior Court at 235 Church St.
The state originally charged the 22-year-old New Haven suspect with one felony count of carrying a pistol without a permit. It plans to issue more charges in the days to come. A Superior Court judge has set the suspect’s bond at $750,000.
New Haven police called in the state cops to investigate the officer-involved shooting right after it happened, in accordance to Connecticut policy.
A Previous New Haven Shooting, Then A Bridgeport Chase
EINO SIERPE PHOTO
The investigator: Tough-guy state cop Beauton unleashing police dog Nero on unarmed protesters during a previous visit to town.
The investigative report was written by state police Detective Michael Beauton on Jan. 9. Beauton, it turns out, has his own history of alleged abuse of city residents: In 2017, he twice pepper sprayed a nearly-70-year-old protest leader and unleashed a police dog who wound up attacking three cops in the crowd. State police investigators subsequently cleared Beauton of all alleged wrongdoing in the incident, the latest in a string of incidents the trooper was accused of excessive force.
Beauton’s new report about the Kimberly Square incident reveals that city police were looking for the 22-year-old suspect in the first place because of his believed involvement in a shooting in New Haven in December 2018.
It also reveals that last week’s foot chase through the Hill wasn’t the first time the suspect had fled from the police. He allegedly took state troopers on a high-speed motor vehicle chase outside of New Haven in December.
“On Wednesday, December 19th, 2018,” Beauton writes, “New Haven Police conducted a shooting investigation in which a victim was shot in their jurisdiction. Through the course of their investigation, [the 22-year-old New Havener] was identified as a suspect in the shooting. New Haven Police were also able to ascertain that the weapon [the man] was suspected of using was a .380 Caliber handgun.”
One day later, state police in Bridgeport pulled the suspect over in a traffic stop. As the troopers were speaking with the suspect, Beauton writes, the suspect fled the motor vehicle stop “and engaged troopers in pursuit through multiple jurisdictions.”
The suspect ultimately fled his car and escaped on foot. After the car chase, state troopers secured an arrest warrant for the suspect out of Milford Superior Court. The warrant charged the suspect with engaging in a police pursuit “as well as other charges associated with that incident.”
A New Haven Chase, A New Haven Shooting
Thomas Breen photo
A state police truck on Howard Avenue day after shooting.
Then on Jan. 8, officers and detectives in the city police department’s intelligence unit got word that the suspect “was selling narcotics and carrying a firearm in the area of Hurlburt Street and Washington Avenue” in the Hill, according to Beauton’s report.
Here’s what happened next, Beauton wrote:
Six city intelligence officers, including Lt. Karl Jacobson, Sgt. Roy Davis, Det. Francisco Sanchez, Det. Thomas Glynn, Officer Allan Wright, and Officer Joseph Galvan, headed to the Hill to try to find the suspect.
Galvan was the first to see the suspect riding a bicycle in the vicinity of Kimberly Square. When the other five officers arrived at the scene, they saw suspect park his bike and walk into Sam’s Food Store.
Jacobson and Davis exited their police vehicles and approached the store, but the suspect noticed them coming and ran out the back door. Davis, Jacobson, and Glynn gave chase on foot, while the other three officers pursued in their vehicles.
Det. Sanchez exited his vehicle on Kimberly Avenue and ran down Kimberly, and then left onto Greenwich Avenue.
The suspect ran in between 445 – 447 Greenwich Ave. and 451 Greenwich Ave. Rivera and Glynn were the lead officers in pursuit. (It was quite the day for the two detectives, who were also involved in a high-speed chase that led them onto the Tweed runway earlier that morning.)
“At some point between the residences on Greenwich Avenue,” Beauton writes, “Detective Sanchez and Glynn grabbed hold of [the suspect] and a brief struggle ensued. [The suspect] was able to break free and continued to run down the driveway towards the rear of the two houses.”
“During this time,” Beauton continues, “Detective Sanchez discharged his firearm in response to [the suspect] firing a weapon towards pursuing officers.”
The suspect got away, fleeing up First Street toward Howard Avenue. A neighbor who was at home watching television at the time heard five gunshots fired, and looked outside to see what was happening. He saw the suspect walking on the side yard of 77 First St. before ducking down to hide behind a bush directly in front of the house. The neighbor saw police detectives searching the area with flashlights, and told them the man was hiding in a bush.
Telltale Tattoo
445-447 Greenwich Ave. and 451 Greenwich Ave. during last week’s state police investigation.
When the police apprehended the suspect, he “was no longer wearing his pants and jacket, and stated to officers that he had been robbed and shot, thereby portraying himself as a victim.”
Officers confirmed the suspect’s identity by “verifying a known tattoo — a tattoo of the lower half of a human skull,” which the suspect was known to have. The suspect had a visible gunshot wound to his pelvis “and was provided medical attention and was subsequently transported to Yale New Haven Hospital for medical treatment.”
The officers then canvassed the path of the suspect’s flight. They found a pair of jeans and a jacket on the ground at the corner of First Street and Howard Avenue in front of 77 First St. In the rear yard of the adjacent property at 332 Howard Ave., the officers located a “silver, small caliber semi-automatic handgun.”
Officers also canvassed the driveway between 445 – 447 Greenwich and 451 Greenwich, where Sanchez, Glynn, and the suspect had wrestled and shots were exchanged.
“Several spent shell casings were located which appeared to be consistent with the caliber firearm carried by Detective Sanchez,” Beauton writes. “Further down the driveway, another spent shell casing was located. This shell casing appeared to be of a smaller caliber.”
The report does not identify how many shell casings corresponding to Sanchez’s gun were found. Nor does it directly tie the shell casings from the smaller gun to the weapon allegedly held by the suspect.
Beauton does note that city detectives later viewed residential surveillance video that showed the suspect throwing an object over the fence into the back yard of 332 Howard Ave. during his flight from the police. “The location at which [the suspect] tossed this object coincided with the location at which the firearm was recovered.”
The suspect’s next court date is scheduled for Jan. 22.