Probe Tests Taser, Body Cam Rules

Police brass has ordered retraining for three officers who tased a criminal suspect four times in a store and then pepper-sprayed him — and the department has opened an internal investigation into the handling of body camera footage of the event.

The investigation stems from an incident captured on one of the new body cameras the department has begun distributing to all officers. The incident took place at 9:18 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, inside Whalley Food Market at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Hobart Street.

Officers ended up arresting a 36-year-old man from the neighborhood — whom they suspected of being high on PCP — on disorderly conduct and interfering charges after the tasing and pepper-spraying ended.

The suspect — who has pleaded guilty in 11 separate criminal offenses involving drugs, assault, and larceny, among other offenses, since 2009, according to state records — was released after the misdemeanor arrest on a promise to appear in court. An ambulance crew took him to the Yale-New Haven St. Raphael campus for medical attention. He has not yet entered a plea in the case. He could not be reached for comment for this story.

And he never filed any complaints with the cops, according to Assistant Police Chief Racheal Cain.

But ​“there were concerns within the department” about how the officers conducted themselves, Cain said. So she asked the police chief to authorize an internal investigation, and he agreed.

However, the investigation does not center on the officers’ conduct. Cain, who oversees professional standards for the department, and Assistant Chief Otoniel Reyes, who oversees patrol, said they reviewed body camera footage and concluded that the officers did not use excessive force.

“We believe they were justified in the use of force. We believe there are things they could have done better,” Cain said. She said the officers will undergo remedial retraining in de-escalation, or how to prevent incidents from ramping up in the confrontation.

The chiefs have developed ​“concern around the handling of the video” of the event captured by an officer’s body camera, Cain said. So on Wednesday, the department opened an internal investigation into that aspect of the case. She declined to detail the concerns.

The case, and investigation, offer an initial test of how body cameras will affect both internal workings and public confidence in the New Haven police force. The department bought 800 Axon body-worn cameras and then began distributing them to all officers in November. About 200 sworn officers of varying ranks are wearing the camera.

A clerk at the Whalley market told the Independent that its surveillance system also had footage, which it turned over to the police.

The Independent has requested a copy of the body camera footage. Cain said the department will not release it until the investigation is done, so as not to prejudice interviewees’ statements.

The Official Version

Officer Lindsey Nesto gave the official version of the case in a written incident report obtained by the Independent. Here’s her account:

She and fellow Officers Gregory Reynolds and Kenroy Taylor responded to a call of ​“an emotionally disturbed person running up and down the street” and ​“appear[ing] to be under the influence of something” on Whalley. She arrived to find the suspect walking into the Whalley Food Market. She recognized the man from an encounter an hour and a half earlier, when she and Officer Kenroy Taylor had seen him pacing Ellsworth Avenue ​“erratically, yelling ​‘Call the police!’” scaring a woman on the street, blocking traffic and almost getting run over. He escaped from them at that point.

Now the officers followed the man into the food market. He told Nesto he ​‘was trying to buy a lottery ticket for someone.” The officers repeatedly asked him for identification. He ​“took out his wallet,” but rather than showing ID, he spoke ​“erratically” and nonsensically, at times repeating, ​“Call the cops.”

The man ​“appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance. [His] eyes were glassy, his speech was slurred and he was sweating profusely. Through my training and experience, he was showing symptoms of someone who has recently used PCP,” Nesto wrote.

The man refused an order to put his hands behind his back, instead, he raised them, kneeled, then headed for the exit. The officers blocked him; he ​“became physically aggressive.”

Officer Taylor allegedly warned him several times he’d be tased if he didn’t stop. He ​“would not comply,” so Taylor shot him with the taser. The tasing ​“was unsuccessful due to [the target] having a hooded sweatshirt and a thick jacket.” The man ​“took off his jacket and got into a fighting stance.” The officers warned the man again. Officer Taylor executed two more ​“unsuccessful” tasings and then one by Nesto.

Next Taylor hit the man with OC (pepper) spray. The target ​“was not affected and still disregarded… commands.”

Instead, he ​“jumped over the counter.” Reynolds ​“tried to grab” him, but instead ​“went over the counter” with him. From behind the counter, the man sought to flee; Nesto blocked him. Then she and her two fellow officers took him to the ground ​“in an attempt to handcuff him.” The man allegedly fought back and ​“tried to tuck his hands under his chest in an attempt to not be handcuffed.”

Nesto radioed for backup officers, who arrived and helped restrain the man and handcuff him.

After he went to the hospital, all three officers filed reports. Reynolds’ and Taylor’s reports echoed Nesto’s.

A cashier who witnessed the events also echoed the officers’ version, in an interview with the Independent.

“This was the craziest thing I’ve seen” in 11 years working behind the counter at Whalley Market, the cashier, Mohammed Elmarzouk, a native of Morocco, said Thursday evening in between selling lottery tickets, candy, and tobacco products to a steady stream of customers. The arrestee ​“was out of control,” he said. ​“They were telling him to turn around against the wall; he wouldn’t cooperate” or show his hands.

Rumblings

The assistant chiefs said that the officer’s body camera did what it was supposed to do.

“The body cams worked,” and showed the whole episode, said Assistant Chief Reyes. He said the video showed that the officers did not act inappropriately.

The intention was also to show the public what happens in controversial situations involving the police, in an effort to build trust. When this video is released, the public will presumably be able to see whether the officers used appropriate force and whether, as at least some cops at 1 Union Ave. have concluded, they erred in unnecessarily escalating a situation that didn’t need to end in repeated tasing and then pepper-spraying.

Assistant Chief Cain played a leading role in crafting the department’s policy for the use of body cameras and handling of the footage. She said one of the goals of the policy is public ​“transparency” and ​“accountability.”

Part of the process of using body-cam video to communicate with the public in tense situations involves timing: How promptly will police release the footage?

If not for the internal investigation, the body cam footage would have been promptly released in response to the Independent’s Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request, Cain said. She said the policy allows the department to hold the video for 90 days for purposes of investigation before releasing it. Under special circumstances, the video can be held longer if needed for further investigation.

Cain was asked if that defeats part of the transparency and accountability goal: If a matter sparks public questions, and therefore leads to an investigation, it then takes months for the public to see the footage.

It’s important that people not see that video before they answer investigators’ questions about what happened, she responded. Otherwise, they might answer based on what they see on the video as opposed to what they remember.

She said she does not envision internal investigators interviewing civilians in the probe, just police officers. She declined to say why officers are being questioned beyond ​“corners around the handling of the video.”

She also said that while the policy allows for a 90-day wait, she expects the investigation to wrap up, and the footage to be released considerably sooner.

“I don’t see it taking 90 days,” she said.

The city has been tightening its guidelines for taser use in recent years. Department brass makes a point of reviewing every use.

As with any incident involving that much use of tasers, the department does a thorough review to see what can be learned for further training — such as whether officers should take earlier action to take control of a situation like this one, Reyes said. The body cam footage helped.