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Mayors Harp & Leng vow cooperation at Wednesday afternoon.
Hamden cop Devin Eaton; Yale cop Terrance Pollock.
(Updated) The Hamden cop who shot into a car with two unarmed people inside in Newhallville began his career in New Haven and learned his trade in Elm City’s police academy.
The shooting Tuesday has prompted community outrage — and Wednesdy prompted Hamden and New Haven leaders to promise to work together to “rebuild the community’s trust.”
They also predicted that a police body camera video of the incident, or at least part of it, should be publicly available by week’s end.
The officer, Devin Eaton, was on patrol in Hamden slightly past 4 a.m. Tuesday when he responded to a report of a possible attempted armed robbery of a newspaper deliveryman at a gas station.
He found a car that resembled the one associated with the incident in the initial report. He found it across the line in New Haven, at Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street. He and Terrance Pollock, a Yale cop who came to back him up, boxed in the car. Eaton ordered the driver out; the driver, Paul Witherspoon, started to come out, then ducked back in once Eaton and Pollock started firing bullets. (State police, who are investigating the incident, said Eaton fired because the driver exited “abruptly.”)
Eaton and Pollock fired repeatedly at the car; one bullet struck an unarmed passenger, Stephanie Washington, in the torso, sending her to the hospital. (Read a fuller account of the incident, including the official statements, here.) Hamden Police Chief John Cappiello claimed Wednesday that he doesn’t know at this point which officer fired the bullet that struck Washington.
The case has since become the spark for protests and public outrage. Among the complaints from New Haven critics: New Haven cops are trained not to act that way.
“What is the training procedure of Yale? What is the training procedure of Hamden? Apparently there are different avenues of training,” the Rev. Boise Kimber remarked at one press conference Tuesday called to protest Hamden’s actions in the case.
It turns out Officer Eaton, whose identity was confirmed by numerous law enforcement sources familiar with the case (then confirmed by Hamden hours after this story appeared), learned how to be a cop at the New Haven police academy. Eaton, who attended school in New Haven, graduated from the police academy and was sworn in as a New Haven officer in March 2015.
He resigned from the New Haven force effective June 30, 2016, to take a job with Hamden’s force, one of a wave of New Haven cops lured to Hamden and other suburban departments.
Pollock has been a Yale cop since 2003.
Hamden has put Eaton on administrative leave while the state police conduct an investigation into the shooting. Yale has placed Pollock on leave as well.
Eaton is African-American, as is Pollock, and as are Witherspoon (whom police later released from custody and ended up not charging with a crime) and Washington.
The officers’ actions were captured on a surveillance video, which you can watch above (or a clearer version on WTNH’s Kent Pierce’s Twitter feed, reproduced here as well).
Surveillance video shows the moment a Hamden police officer opens fire on a car in New Haven. pic.twitter.com/h7IrwPbcgo
— Kent Pierce (@kentpierce8) April 16, 2019
“Stephanie Washington is resting well. The family wants privacy and time to heal,” Mayor Toni Harp reported at a Wednesday afternoon press conference.
Leng: Video On Its Way
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Chief Reyes: “Let’s rebuild trust.”
Harp and Hamden Mayor Curt Leng held a teleconference Wednesday morning with the Hamden, Yale, and New Haven police chiefs to discuss the unfolding case.
Then Harp and Leng held the 3:30 p.m. City Hall press conference along with their chiefs to discuss the next steps.
The group decided that the heads of the three police agencies will confer daily, for now, to monitor and discuss issues raised by this case.
“We’re going to open dialogue about looking at our policies and procedures and making sure we work together to get better outcomes,” said New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes.
Reyes called on the community use the shooting as an “opportunity” to help police up their game.
“We realize we need to be held to a higher standard,” Reyes said. “Help us be part of the healing.
“Let’s rebuild the trust that was lost yesterday.”
Harp said the communities will work on a memorandum of agreement setting rules for crossing each other’s borders on police pursuits.
Tuesday’s shooting “betrays police activity gone horribly wrong along the Hamden/New Haven line and now a young woman — and many city residents— must live with the consequences and resulting uncertainty of that unacceptable response,” Mayor Harp said.
“Going forward, police activity that spills over into New Haven must be standardized and memorialized so that, while it is common and perfectly legal, it is also conducted in a manner consistent with guidelines that apply to New Haven’s police personnel.”
Hamden Mayor Leng said his town’s officials will begin regularly attending community management team meetings in New Haven neighborhoods bordering the town. And Hamden cops will attend weekly data-sharing Compstat meetings and regular intelligence sessions at 1 Union Ave.
Hamden Chief John Cappiello said he doesn’t yet know which officer shot first in the Tuesday morning incident.
Mayor Leng said New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin told him his office has made the investigation a “top priority.” Griffin’s office took possession of body camera footage when it launched the investigation. Leng said Griffin said to expect to have the footage returned by Friday. At that point, Leng promised, the town will release the videos, as activists have demanded.
Griffin was a no-show at Wednesday’s press conference.
Click here to read a letter that Yale President Peter Salovey wrote to the university community Wednesday evening. Click here for an official account of some of the details of the incident released by Yale Wednesday evening.
Thomas Breen Photo
Protesters at police HQ Tuesday demand to speak to a higher-up Hamden cop.
Correction: An earlier version of this story got wrong the name of the day school Devin Eaton attended.
Let the BWC footage (FROM BOTH YPD AND HPD), Dispatch information, and Incident information come out before putting out your own interpretation of the video-only surveillance footage and your opinion on the HPD Officer.
Why are you not talking about the YPD Officer???
Let the investigation run its course.