Cop Could Have Fired

The man brandished a knife. He charged at Officer Jason Santiago.

Santiago had his gun out. He knew he might have to pull the trigger. But first he tried another idea.

The dramatic scene played out Wednesday at the Ruoppolo Manor public-housing complex on Ferry Street in Fair Haven.

If it had ended with Santiago shooting the knife-wielding man, it could have been the fourth ​“officer-involved” shooting in Connecticut in four weeks, including the killing of a knife-wielding mentally ill New Haven man by a state trooper in West Haven.

Wednesday’s encounter ended differently. That was a story in itself: A story about how officers often find ways to avoid shooting people, even in dangerous situations in which doing so would be considered understandable. About the benefit of having officers who know their turf and get trained to find alternatives in dealing with mentally ill people seeking to provoke either violence or ​“suicide by cop.”

Police Chief Otoniel Reyes commended the officers involved for ​“tremendous work in resolving this conflict.”

“This is the type of work officers are doing every day,” Reyes said after it was all over Wednesday. ​“It goes unnoticed. They face life and death decisions. They put their lives on the line. And they use proper judgment.”

Sadly, sometimes officers do need to shoot people, unfortunately, Reyes observed. ​“But more often than not, they succeed in not having to use deadly force.”

“I’ll Talk To Him”

The call came in from Ruoppolo at 10:08 a.m. A woman said a man was chasing her and threatening to hurt her.

Santiago was nearby on Pine Street finishing up a suspicious vehicle call. He hurried over to Ruoppolo, as did another veteran Fair Haven officer named Eric Aviles.

Santiago, who is 32 and was born in Puerto Rico, has patrolled Fair Haven since joining the force in 2012. He knew from experience that a call from Ruoppolo — with its combination senior-disabled population — could ​“go south” fast, because many tenants have mental illness. In fact, in 2016 an officer shot and wounded a 38-year-old knife-wielding man at Ruoppolo who said he wanted to force police to kill him. (That shooting was ruled ​“reasonable and justified.”)

So Santiago knew Wednesday that he had to maintain ​“a certain demeanor,” keeping hyper-aware from the first step past the bus stop out front, where people who hang out often don’t welcome seeing cops. ​“We always have to watch our backs going in and watch our front.”

He also knew from experience, both from dealing with mentally ill people in trouble and from training with the SWAT team, that he needs to rely first and foremost on ​“our best weapon — our mouth.” In other words, engaging and talking with troubled people often turns out the most effective way to deescalate a tense situation.

He walked right into that situation at Ruoppolo Wednesday. A man came out the front door alongside a woman imploring him, ​“No, no, no! Don’t do it!” Santiago saw the man brandish a knife at her.

He recognized the man. He’d encountered him on other tense calls. He knew the man is mentally ill and turns violent.

Santiago and Aviles needed to act fast. They’re trained in these situations to have one officer take charge and deal most directly with the dangerous person in order to avoid confusion, to avoid having multiple cops talking and yelling.

The man, who is 28 years old, rushed at the officers. He came within a few steps, according to Santiago.

“I got lethal. You got the taser,” Santiago told Aviles. ​“I’ll talk to him.”

Santiago pulled his gun, Aviles his taser. They stepped backward. The man stopped.

“I’m going to kill myself then,” he told them.

Santiago focused on avoiding ​“trigger words” — words that might upset the man more. Those words differ based on each individual, Santiago said. In this case, the man has a history of bad encounters with the mental health system. Therefore, starting out by promising to get him help might upset him more, based on broken or unfulfilled past promises.

“Drop the knife. Drop the knife,” Santiago urged the man. ​“Tell me what happened.”

If he could get the man talking, Santiago figured, he could buy time and possibly calm the man down.

He also had his radio turned on. With the ​“drop the knife” refrain, he was letting the dispatcher and other officers know the seriousness of the situation, to encourage back-up.

Aviles fired his taser. One of the two prongs failed to attach to the man, who was wearing a winter coat and sweatshirt.

“You’re going to have to kill me,” the man kept saying.

Even though he presented a danger, Santiago concluded, ​“I felt he was not trying to kill us.”

Back-up officers arrived. Santiago raised his voice slightly to maintain the man’s undivided attention, but ​“not too much to set him off.”

“Tell me what happened …”

One of the back-up officers approached from the side, and did end up startling the man — enough that the man dropped his knife. The officers swept in and grabbed him. He resisted slightly, according to Santiago, but not enough for the officers to need to take him to the ground. They handcuffed him.

Santiago also knew that the man’s moods could swing. He grew calmer, then started spitting at them. The man had on a mesh hat; the officers pulled it over his mouth.

The man asked to have the hat removed from his face.

“We’ll make a deal with you,” Santiago told him. ​“You have to remain calm. You can’t spit. You can’t fight.”

The man agreed. The hat came off his face.

West Street Rerun

At that point, Sgt. Dave Guliuzza, the morning shift’s patrol supervisor for the east side, arrived on scene. The handcuffed man and Guliuzza recognized each other instantly: They had encountered each other one day last summer in the Hill. The man had a knife then, too, and had threatened the cops. He had urged the cops to kill him. It took an hour of negotiation to convince him to drop the knife that time.

At Ruoppolo, Guliuzza saw an opportunity to help calm the scene. In these situations, an arrestee sometimes seeks to speak to someone in charge.

“You know me from West Street,” Guliuzza reminded the man. The man started telling Guliuzza how unsafe he feels at Ruoppolo amid all the criminal activity there. He’s been attacked there, he said. He needs to move somewhere else.

“Right now we’re going to deal with this situation” and then address the longer-term problem later, Guliuzza told him.

Medics had arrived on the scene. Officers put the man inside an ambulance so the crew could take him to Yale New Haven’s St. Raphael campus for evaluation.

En route, the man lost it again. He started kicking the medics. He flipped over the stretcher, injuring himself in the process. The driver pulled over while the officers were summoned. Officer Santiago ended up following the ambulance the rest of the way to the hospital, where the man was subsequently evaluated and committed to a 72-hour stay while mental health professionals worked out a longer-term plan to help him.

Santiago remained at the hospital for hours, because the man periodically resumed creating a scene. Then Santiago visited the woman the man had attacked. She turned out to be his wife. Following protocol, he worked out a plan with her to keep her safe with the help of domestic violence professionals.

By the time Santiago returned at police headquarters to write up his report, dusk was about to fall. The man would be charged with assaulting his wife and the ambulance worker. Santiago was focused on hoping the man receives the help he needs to avoid freaking out in the future and repeating the day’s acts. Cops were looking into helping the man relocate from Ruoppolo.

“It’s horrific that this life has led him to this point,” Santiago reflected. ​“I look at him as a victim too; this didn’t happen overnight. So many years of trauma led up to this. I’m thinking of his wife, too. And so many people witnessed this, and were traumatized. I want to get as much help as I can to everyone involved.”

In other words, even after he finished his report, the police still had work to do on this case. To ensure more outcomes that don’t make news.

Other installments in the Independent’s ​“Cop of the Week” series: 

• Shafiq Abdussabur
• Yessennia Agosto
• Craig Alston & Billy White Jr.
• Joseph Aurora
• James Baker
• Lloyd Barrett
• Pat Bengston & Mike Valente
• Elsa Berrios
• Manmeet Bhagtana (Colon)
• Paul Bicki
• Paul Bicki (2)
• Sheree Biros
• Bitang
• Scott Branfuhr
• Bridget Brosnahan
• Craig Burnett & Orlando Crespo
• Keron Bryce and Steve McMorris
• Keron Bryce and Osvaldo Garcia
• Keron Bryce and Osvaldo Garcia (2)
• Dennis Burgh
• Anthony Campbell
• Darryl Cargill & Matt Wynne
• Elizabeth Chomka & Becky Fowler
• Rob Clark & Joe Roberts
• Sydney Collier
• Carlos Conceicao
• Carlos Conceicao (2)
• Carlos Conceicao and Josh Kyle
• David Coppola
• Mike Criscuolo
• Natalie Crosby
• Steve Cunningham and Timothy Janus
• Chad Curry
• Gregory Dash
• Roy Davis
• Joe Dease
• Milton DeJesus
• Milton DeJesus (2)
• Rose Dell
• Brian Donnelly
• Renee Dominguez, Leonardo Soto, & Mary Helland
• Anthony Duff
• Anthony Duff (2)
• Robert DuPont
• Robert DuPont and Rose Dell
• Eric Eisenhard & Jasmine Sanders
• Jeremie Elliott and Scott Shumway
• Jeremie Elliott (2)
• Jose Escobar Sr.
• Bertram Ettienne
• Bertram Ettienne (2)
• Martin Feliciano & Lou DeCrescenzo
• Paul Finch
• Jeffrey Fletcher
• Renee Forte
• Marco Francia
• Michael Fumiatti
• Michael Fumiatti (2)
• Osvaldo Garcia, Marlena Ofiara & Jake Wright
• William Gargone
• William Gargone (2)
• William Gargone & Mike Torre
• Derek Gartner
• Derek Gartner & Ryan Macuirzynski
• Tom Glynn & Matt Williams
• Jon Haddad & Daniela Rodriguez
• Michael Haines
• Michael Haines & Brendan Borer
• Michael Haines & Brendan Borer (2)
• Dan Hartnett
• Ray Hassett
• Robert Hayden
• Patricia Helliger
• Robin Higgins
• Ronnell Higgins
• William Hurley & Eddie Morrone
• Derek Huelsman
• Racheal Inconiglios
• Juan Ingles
• Bleck Joseph and Marco Correa
• Shayna Kendall
• Shayna Kendall (2)
• Paul Kenney
• Hilda Kilpatrick
• Herb Johnson
• John Kaczor & Alex Morgillo
• Jillian Knox
• Peter Krause
• Peter Krause (2)
• Amanda Leyda
• Rob Levy
• Kyle Listro & Joseph Perrotti
• Anthony Maio
• Dana Martin
• Reggie McGlotten
• Steve McMorris
• Juan Monzon
• Monique Moore and David Santiago
• Matt Myers
• Carlos and Tiffany Ortiz
• Tiffany Ortiz
• Doug Pearse and Brian Jackson
• Chris Perrone
• Joseph Perrotti
• Joseph Perrotti & Gregory Dash
• Ron Perry
• Joe Pettola
• Diego Quintero and Elvin Rivera
• Ryan Przybylski
• Stephanie Redding
• Tony Reyes
• David Rivera
• Luis & David Rivera
• Luis Rivera (2)
• Salvador Rodriguez
• Salvador Rodriguez (2)
• Brett Runlett
• David Runlett
• Betsy Segui & Manmeet Colon
• Allen Smith
• Marcus Tavares
• Martin Tchakirides
• David Totino
• Stephan Torquati
• Gene Trotman Jr.
* Elisa Tuozzoli
• Kelly Turner
• Lars Vallin (& Xander)
• Dave Vega & Rafael Ramirez
• Earl Reed
• Daophet Sangxayarath & Jessee Buccaro
• Herb Sharp
• Matt Stevens and Jocelyn Lavandier
• Jessica Stone
• Jessica Stone & Mike DeFonzo
• Arpad Tolnay
• Mike Torre & Ray Saracco
• John Velleca
• Manuella Vensel
• Holly Wasilewski
• Holly Wasilewski (2)
• Alan Wenk
• Stephanija VanWilgen
• Donald White, Brandon Way, & David Santiago
• Elizabeth White & Allyn Wright
• Matt Williams
• Michael Wuchek
• Michael Wuchek (2)
• David Zannelli
• Cailtin Zerella
• Caitlin Zerella (2)
• Caitlin Zerella, Derek Huelsman, David Diaz, Derek Werner, Nicholas Katz, and Paul Mandel
• David Zaweski