City Cop Killed In Vegas Car Crash

Wow, so sorry to hear this. Prayers go out to both officers families…This is so sad.

What a terrible tragedy. My condolences to the loved ones and coworkers for their loss. I hope anyone who is struggling with this seeks out the help they need to deal with this loss. Please remember there is no shame in getting help when you are struggling.

What a tradgedy. I'd met Josh a few times and... really great guy. My condolences to his family, friends and his extended family in policing.

Chief Dominguez said Friday that her "first priority" for the day is the "well-being of other officers." She will subsequently deal with any charges that may be brought against the officer driving the vehicle involved in the crash.

"We have policies that govern off duty and on duty behavior," and "we will follow those policies," Dominguez said.

Wow.I had the feeling that this was a vehicle crash cause by DUI.

NH is always in other jurisdictions' business. Let Vegas handle the case. Stop looking for more headlines. The death of the office at the hands of a fellow cop who should know better is bad enough news.

As well as being a horrific tragedy, this incident is also a true 'condemnation' of Police Behavior while Off-Duty elsewhere.
On top of everything else, it is a the worst example ever, that NHPD needs to 'own' on the National Law Enforcement Front.

This comment is not 'TOO SOON', it was 'NOT SOON ENOUGH'.

My condolences to all affected.

The Rolls Royce driven by the impaired New Haven police officer was a five-passenger vehicle.

The NHPD needs to own nothing as this was unfortunate conduct and a poor decision made for employees while off-duty. I assume all professions should now own this type of conduct for their employees, please stop.

I'm sure the excise will be, "But they're cops".

I going to assume that the mother of this officer would disagree with the fact that the comment is unwarranted so early in her sons death, but hey who cares about common decency and courtesy. There is always a clown in the group that can't wait to take veiled jabs while the coffin isn't even lowered.

TruthOD,

I agree the "NHPD needs to own nothing." BUT....... with that being the case, no tax payer money should be spend on an off-duty death of a police officer in these circumstances. No cops on-duty to 'stand guard' at the house, no cops to block traffic for a massive procession, etc. Volunteers off-the-clock have at it and show your support. If tax payer money is spent, it simply cheapens the memorials that deserving, on-duty deaths of public servants have rightly earned and should receive. What happened in Vegas should stay in Vegas. I can't stand watching drunk motorists swerve in the road in front of me.

15 years ago I was stuck in traffic in Norwalk at a busy intersection where everyone turned off their car engines and got outside their car to try to figure out when traffic would open up. When I approached other motorists and learned it was because it was a cop's funeral procession passing by, my first thoughts were sadness, and appreciation that a public servant sacrificed his life to make our lives safer. I quietly reflected and later read a news article about it. When I found out the cop committed suicide with a gun, I was actually angry that traffic was diverted and stopped and we were forced to honor his memory. Police officers: We love you guys and gals!!!!!!! But just like TruthOD acknowledges, other industries don't make a big fuss when one of their own dies, so don't make the public suffer from OFF-DUTY death memorials.

Scene that never took place:

Caller: Hello, police department? Can I get a traffic permit to close traffic for one hour for a funeral procession, and have officers posted at every intersection nearby?

Police: What was the nature of the death?

Caller: Well, he died in a car crash.

Police: Sure. We'll assign 30 cops for traffic posts. Anything else?

Caller: Aren't you going to ask if the person was a dignitary, or something.

Police: Nope, that should do it.

@HavenKnew

There is a huge difference between a cop's death by suicide and a death caused by DUI while off duty and visiting Vegas; equally, there's a huge difference between being the driver in a fatal DUI crash and being the passenger.

Suicide among cops is quite often a line-of-duty death at one remove: a result of what they see and what they do while on duty. Compassion is always in order in cases of suicide, and especially when line-of-duty trauma is likely to be involved.

And in the case of this incident, we certainly know there was horrendously irresponsible behavior on the part of the driver, who was also a New Haven cop. We don't, at this point, know much about the circumstances of the victim -- certainly not enough to go about smearing him for the circumstances of his death. Maybe he was drunk; maybe he wasn't. Maybe he failed to fasten his seat belt and that's why he was thrown from the car; maybe the impact was so powerful that he was ejected despite wearing a seat belt. Maybe he was trying to get the driver to slow down; maybe there was an altercation in the front seat.

By all accounts he was an excellent police officer. Assuring a certain level of official respect at his funeral, out of compassion for his family and fellow officers, seems to me to be a reasonable use of the taxpayer funds that pay for the New Haven police force.

Comments that are anything but offers of condolence's here are disgusting.

Police Officers historically have been vulnerable to excess self-medication, characterized as "blowing off steam", or reflective of the the "live hard" "play hard" attitude held by many individuals in occupations where death is and every day reality. Picking up the dead bodies, of young adults, or going in to try and disarm and arrest the hundreds of individuals in New Haven that are armed heavily, and shooting to kill others on public streets. The balance between knowledge that one can be killed every day at your work, and those cops on the gun task force, working in neighborhoods where armed drug gangsters believe they are the government, and not city hall, and their representatives, in the police. Chronic assignment to these dark tasks alters how people see their futures. Excesses are viewed as understandable, and planning for a "normal" future that all Americans are entitled to, and most know as their lives, is not something that is feasible in the young minds of these cops at the "tip of the sword" on the streets of their city (something that should not be happening, but continues here as the great minds in city hall and Yale have fumbled a solution for decades, as social experiments, but have failed much in the way the Yale Child Study had a heavy hand in police policy during the Pastore, and post Pastore administrations.). Police officers in the New Haven department have been having their professional and personal lives destroyed due to their own attempts to find "a release" for the PTSD that controls their emotional well being, and essentially their sanity, with little on no notice. Dozens have died, committed suicide, shot and killed in the line of duty, and off, died off duty in some form of reckless or dangerous behavior, because that is how they live every day they go out onto the street to serve the public. They are actually in danger of dying daily, and the only way for one to really understand or feel that, is to go out and do. The lack of that.....

......experience, and the understanding that would come with actually "being in it" , "being there", to receive the damage to your emotional and mental well being, that is permanent, is obvious in one of two of the comments here. And it is those sentiments, the concern for how your tax dollar is spent, and "wasted" in the bias of some individuals, has ruled the day for decades now, in respect to admitting the PTSD, the damage to these individuals daily, as no one want to pay for the health benefits, or retirements benefits that would result, if this action, which would probably stop most accidental shootings of innocent people. If only they were cared for. If only the people in charge, and Yale, would conclude the studies they started in the early nineties, that were stopped and suppressed, as the conclusion was that better than half of the department suffered from sever PTSD, that worked on the streets during the mid to late eighties. It would have been proof that the city has failed their cops, and been the root of police excess violence, and the tragic events such as what has happened here. Dozens of disasters in the lives of cops, their families, over the past four decades, and no one, not one of the "great minds" within the department, city hall , or Yale, will go near speaking in public about the reasons for these terrible events, because no one wants to tell the taxpaying public their taxes would have to be raised to care of the mental health of their cops. This is not an excuse for behavior that police officers should not be doing, but this is not a one off. It is repetitive, but a symptom of a greater problem, that no one that could fix it wants to talk about, or ever advocate for in public. Long ago, a half century ago, in a police academy, the appointees, were warned numerous times, during their training, by the seasoned administrators, and cop instructors. that "booze and broads" and an excess of those , were a sure path to disaster for a cop. Sorry.

CityYankee2, Bill Saunders, TruthOD, HavenKnew- NHPD need to address this because it is traumatic to their staff, and if it is a DUI it is self medicating behavior (also known as blowing off steam,) due to stress, anxiety, depression- all of which are often a daily part of first responders highly stressful and traumatic job experiences. The mental health care of our first responders should be a high priority to our municipal government.
Even off duty behavior reflects on the department because we hold our public servants to a higher standard of behavior, and we have especially high standards of behavior of our law enforcement officers because it is their job to uphold the law.
The NHPD and NHFD need to honor police and firefighters who die regardless of the cause because of the coworkers and loved ones they left behind are grieving. Funerals are for the living. Hopefully the city will provide grief counselors and encourage fellow officers to get help to process this tragedy and the trauma of losing one of their own, and the city will encourage and provide an ongoing therapy counselor for all first responders to talk to whenever they feel the anxiety and stress and depression that comes with such a highly stressful job is adversely impacting them. Addressing and taking care of the mental health of our first responders creates better first responders who are more adequately equipped to handle the stress that comes with these jobs.
I often comment critically in the NHI on holding police to a higher standard of behavior, and holding them accountable for their behavior. But I also have compassion for the incredibly difficult job they do and the toll it takes on them. You should have compassion for their loved ones, their coworkers, and everyone who was impacted by this loss, and ask yourself how we can help prevent such tragedies in the future, by increasing access and removing the stigma of accessing mental healthcare for our first responders.

I disagree, Hartman. The officer that was driving put many other lives in danger and the folks in the car did not stop him from driving. This story is as much about the death of an officer as it is about the safety of the public the driving officer is paid to serve. It sucks, I agree. But we can not look the other way because one officer allegedly took another officer's life and nearly others. If there's another article that is a story explicitly about the life of the officer who was killed then I would understand the request to keep comments to that subject. This article is about more than the victim and it does reflect a problem with the hiring process at NHPD.

Very sad to the officer who lost his life. My condolences to his family. I started to also think of the survivors in the car including the driver. They must've all been friends if they were in vegas together and in the car together. Partying most likely and drinking. Not another chance to do this moment over for them to take an Uber/taxi. But instead a terrible accident took place where a man lost his life with his friend behind the wheel. The driver will suffer consequences by law and job but nothing will bring back his friend that was killed by his decision. That only is pain forever.

According to a video of Saturday AM's court proceedings where bail was set, posted by KLAS, his captain and lieutenant were "flying out to support him." And he has his niece and nephew who are minors living w him and needed to get back to them. A tragedy for all involved.

Four in the morning, drunk driving, high rate of speed, not wearing a seat belt. And we're supposed to be surprised when something awful happens?

If traffic safety laws had been respected, there would not have been this tragic fatality and loss of one of New Haven's finest.

Just grateful that more lives weren't lost.

@Hartman13. No. The reality of this incident is fair game for us to comment on, and we're all capable of mourning the unfortunate loss of a fine cop while also expressing disgust for the irresponsible behavior of the driver who killed him, injured others, and who put many others in danger. The responsibility is ultimately with him.

I just can't understand why a group of cops - who should have known better than anyone - didn't have the foresight to plan ahead. If you're going out to party and have a good time in Vegas, go for it, but why on earth would you decide to drive yourself around?? Phoning up a ride couldn't be easier these days. And this isn't even an "oops, drunk" mistake - this is a decision you can make before even leaving your hotel room.

posted by: TheInternet on September 19, 2021 5:22pm

I disagree, Hartman. The officer that was driving put many other lives in danger and the folks in the car did not stop him from driving

Very True.He will be charge with involuntary manslaughter.As far as the other officers in that car.They will walk,Due to the fact that they were passages in the car.

It's hard not to wonder why adult professionals put themselves (and others) at risk in a way
more typical of teenagers.
Was this how they handled the stress of their work? Were there no other options?
Again, we need to provide mental health support to all professionals in demanding work like police, fire and health. But police especially exist in a culture that promotes a macho view of work and defines getting help as weak.
Regardless of the outcome of the legal proceedings, the driver will live with the knowledge of a fellow officer's death for the rest of his life. He will have nightmares. Depression. Rage at himself. And none of it will bring his friend back.

@HavenKnew: Those who die from all walks of life and vocations are memorialized with vigils, funeral processions, etc. that sometimes block the road. This is not making the public suffer nor is it forcing others to honor the life of the deceased. It is simply basic human empathy to give those who are grieving the courtesy of the space to do that.

One of the rare nice thing strangers do for each other in our society is to stay stopped at a green light to let any funeral procession go through a red light. When a large funeral is expected police help with that process as a matter of public safety. Pretty straight forward. I'm saddened to hear that this makes you "angry". Its been 15 years since you sat in that traffic and you still seem pretty heated about it talking about how you were "forced to" do something and saying it made the public (you) "suffer". May I suggest letting it go?

I hope when it is time to lay Ofc. Castellano to rest the community comes together with the police department and his friends and family in a large way to honor the life that he lived. From the comments I've seen on social media from those who actually lived in the neighborhoods he served and interacted with him, its abundantly clear he was a great officer who protected and served this city with compassion and care. That's what the road closures will honor.

@ LorcaNotOrca

The fact that the vehicle was a ROLLS ROYCE suggests that it was rented specifically as a joyride -- which means that choosing to ditch the rented showcase car, and get a taxi or Uber, would have meant letting go of what was likely the whole point of the night out, and leaving a rented car at whatever venue the partying was happening.

And clearly, whoever was making the decisions at that point lacked the level of good judgment needed to make that call.