Family Seeks Answers, Arrest In Fatal Crash

The family of a motorcyclist who died in a Winthrop Avenue car crash called on the police to release more details about their investigation and to charge the suspect not just with moving violations, but with the death of their loved one.

Police brass pledged to stay in close contact with the family, and explained that the more serious charges will be filed when officers are confident they can secure a conviction.

Ashley Johnson, Michael Grant, Lakeya Grant, and a half-dozen other close relatives of the late James Grant gathered on the front steps of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. Wednesday morning for a brief press conference about their frustrations with the criminal investigation to date.

“J Blac” Grant, a 28-year-old Hamden resident and member of the Presidents Motorcycle Club, died on Sept. 7 soon after a fatal collision between his motorcycle and a white Acura on Winthrop Avenue near Sylvan Avenue in the Hill.

Wearing a black T‑shirt with an enlarged photograph of her late older brother in the middle, Johnson said that her family has been deeply unsatisfied with the level of communication between the police department and Grant’s relatives over the past three months.

After an initial few phone calls with the supervising lieutenant and the return of the possession’s Grant had on him at the time of the accident, Johnson said, the police did not keep the family regularly updated as to the status of their investigation.

“It seemed like things got kind of quiet,” she said.

Only after the suspect made bail did the family learn that the 42-year-old driver of the Acura had only been charged with operating a motorvehicle without a license and illegally operating a motorvehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

“We’re just trying to get justice and get questions answered about my brother’s accident,” she said. ​“At the end of the day, someone is responsible.”

She said her brother was an avid motorcycle rider, and a member of the President’s motorcycle club. He was on his way to the Hill neighborhood reunion at the time of his fatal crash, she said.

“He did not deserve to have his life taken so shortly,” she continued. ​“The New Haven Police Department, they have done a poor job of keeping us updated and informed on my brother’s case.”

The press conference itself was organized by Mario Boone, an investigative reporter formerly with WTNH. Boone said that the Grant family reached out to him directly with concerns about the apparent lack of communication from the police department, and that he has taken on the role of pro bono media liaison for the Grants.

He said he appreciates that police can’t disclose every detail over the course of an investigation in order to protect that investigation’s integrity. But ​“you have a family in mourning here that’s in the dark. And they deserve some answers.”

Investigation Is Active

Asst. Chief Renee Dominguez and Westville top cop Lt. Rose Dell, who serves on the accident reconstruction team, told reporters after the press conference that the department has tried to share as much information as possible with the Grant family over the course of the investigation.

“There has been communication through the whole process,” Dominguez said. The investigating officer and supervising lieutenant have been in touch with the family as recently as Tuesday, and the Grants have those officers’ phone numbers, she said.

“I think some things that they’re wishing to be told are unable to be told yet,” Dominguez said. That’s because police are still investigating Grant’s death and gathering evidence that would support the filing of more serious charges.

“Typically with fatal accidents, the prosecutor prefers that we do a thorough investigation and not make on-scene arrests,” Dell said.

In this case, the responding officers had reason to believe that the suspect might have been intoxicated, and so arrested and charged him with the two moving violations.

That suspect has subsequently bonded out of custody for those charges.

“We have to take many steps because ultimately we’re looking not just for an arrest,” Dell said. ​“We want to have a very thorough and accurate investigation. We work hand-in-hand with the prosecutor. And that investigation is active.”

Dominguez said she empathizes with the family wanting closure on such after such a tragic and traumatic incident. She said a conviction is much more likely to provide that closure than just an arrest without enough evidence for a conviction.

She and Dell said they have reached out to the family with an offer to meet up in person on Friday to talk through the latest with the investigation. ​“We can share as much as we can without impeding the investigation,” Dell said.

Scene Of The Crash

The incident report retained by the police department following the Sept. 7 crash indicates that the driver of the Acura may have been intoxicated, not necessarily on alcohol.

Officer Nikko Michael Cari wrote that he and Officer Garcia were dispatched to to the site of the accident at Winthrop and Sylvan at around 5:29 p.m. that day.

Upon arrival, they found a black and red motorcycle laying on its side in the southbound lane of Winthrop Avenue just past the intersection with Sylvan. Grant’s body was laying next to his bike in the center median. He was wearing a full face helmet

An ambulance arrived within moments and ferried him to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

The officers also found at the scene a white Acura in the southbound lane, parked at an angle with one of its tires up on the curb. The driver side door was open and the passenger side airbags had deployed.

Cari then made contact with the car’s driver, who identified himself as the operator of the vehicle involved in the accident. The driver said he didn’t sustain any injuries and didn’t need an ambulance. He ​“was visibly shaken up from the incident and it took him some time until he was able to speak to me about what had occurred,” Cari wrote.

The driver said he had just turned right off of Legion Avenue and was traveling south on Winthrop. As he was driving just past the Sylvan intersection, he said, Grant tried to go around his car, and struck the vehicle’s passenger side. The driver said he ​“never saw nor heard the motorcycle until it had impacted the passenger side of his vehicle.”

Garcia interviewed a neighbor who said she witnessed the accident while taking out her garbage. That witness said she saw Grant on his motorcycle attempt to pass the Acura on the right hand side. During that attempted pass, Grant struck the side of the driver’s car, the witness said.

Cari wrote that he and Garcia ultimately arrested the driver and charged him with driving under the influence and driving without a license because of his performance during several on-scene sobriety tests administered by Officer Meagan Moran.

The driver’s eyes were ​“glassy, glazed, and slightly red,” Moran wrote in her own incident report from Sept. 7. The driver said he had not consumed any alcoholic beverages that evening, and said the only drugs he took were related to his diabetes.

The driver ​“did not count his steps out loud as instructed,” Moran wrote, and did not turn correctly when taking a walk-and-turn test. He also displayed a ​“lack of smooth pursuit” in a horizontal gaze nystagmus test. And he put his food down ​“prior to being told to stop the test” when taking a one-leg-stand test.

He did, however, pass a breathalizer test with a blood alcohol content of 0.000. The driver then took a urine test, and that sample was sent to the state crime lab for narcotics analysis, with the results still pending.