nothin Cop Could Have Fired | New Haven Independent

Cop Could Have Fired

Paul Bass Photo

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

Guliuzza: “You know me.”

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

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