Hundreds of protesters massed up and down Dixwell Avenue in two separate rallies late Tuesday demanding answers about why a young woman was shot and a young man arrested (then released) in New Haven by Hamden police earlier in the day.
Officials refused to offer any, down to otherwise routinely disclosed details.
Hamden’s acting police chief, deputy police chief, and mayor all told the upset crowds that they could share virtually nothing about the incident, which is being investigated by the state attorney’s office.
Tuesday’s rapidly organized outpourings of community grief over the shooting of 22-year-old Stephanie Washington and the arrest of 21-year-old Paul Witherspoon took place over the course of two large gatherings at either end of Dixwell Avenue: one in the late afternoon outside the Hamden Police headquarters at 2900 Dixwell, one in the early evening at the corner of Dixwell and Argyle Street in New Haven, where Hamden and Yale police shot at the two young people in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Both rallies brought out well over 150 people, who chanted, shouted, and wept as they demanded that Hamden police immediately release body camera footage from Tuesday morning’s shooting, fire the officers involved, and start treating the African American communities they police like neighbors, not like animals.
Speakers at both rallies continually referenced video recordings of the shootings that have already leaked, and that seem to show a Hamden officer running out of his police car and firing multiple rounds into a parked Honda Civic whose occupant obeyed an order to come out, then ducked back in when bullets started flying, including some fired by a back-up cop from Yale’s police force.
One bullet struck the torso of Stephanie Washington, who was in the passenger seat; she was subsequently taken to the hospital for surgery. Hamden police allegedly crossed the town line into New Haven to find the car based on a report of a possible attempted robbery. No weapons were reportedly found in the car, nor any evidence reported of anyone involved disobeying the cops. (Click here for an interview with driver Witherspoon by WTNH’s Mario Boone.)
“Police officers should not be held to different standards than civilians,” anti-police brutality activist Kerry Ellington said at both the Hamden and the New Haven rallies. “We all saw the footage today.”
And yet, Hamden Acting Police Chief John Cappiello, Hamden Deputy Police Chief Bo Kicak, and Hamden Mayor Curt Leng all told the protesters that, because the state attorney’s office is investigating the case, they cannot release the body camera footage or any other details about what might have happened Tuesday morning. They did confirm that the officer involved has been put on administrative duty.
Click here to read the official initial version of the shooting and some of the ways that official version started fraying during the day, culminating with the release of the suspect/shooting target.
The evening protest’s crowd had to wait until Witherspoon’s mother took the microphone to know that Witherspoon had been released from police custody, and hadn’t been charged with any crimes.
Hamden Takes Extreme Stand
One local attorney, Norm Pattis, told the Independent that, while police are entitled to keep body camera footage private during a state investigation of an officer-involved shooting that leads to a fatality, he is not so sure that that holds true for shootings where the victims are not killed.
Police have discretion. Local police have taken varying approaches to how much information to release about events under investigation. Hamden is so far taking a position on one extreme of the spectrum.
A state trooper, for instance, did provide some details of the official version Tuesday afternoon, while Hamden officials have refused even to offer names of people involved or charges originally considered.
In New Haven, police officials have weighed what evidence needs to be withheld in ongoing investigations in order not to prejudice interviews, while sometimes seeking to release as much other information as quickly as possible in order to quell rumors and gain public trust.
For instance, they waited a few days to release body camera footage about a controversial tasing of a suspect in a bodega to protect the integrity of certain parts of the investigation, then promptly made the video available to address public concerns and in the spirit of the body cam program’s original stated purpose.
In an officer-involved shooting in Fair Haven, even though state police immediately took over the investigation, local top cops were able to provide some basic details to address public concerns without jeopardizing evidence collection.
In Tuesday’s Hamden case, officials there took the complete no-information route, refusing to release even names and ages or the status or details of the arrest, leaving it up to social media to fill in details that proved in some cases accurate, in others not.
Storming HQ
The Hamden rally began at around 5:30, as organized by a coalition of local police-accountability groups, including People Against Police Brutality, Black Lives Matter New Haven, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Justice for Jayson, and the Connecticut Bail Fund.
Barbara Fair, Remidy Shareef, and Norm Clement joined Washington’s friends at the early stages of the protest outside of the Hamden Police headquarters at 2900 Dixwell Ave. to wave signs and shout with tears rolling down their cheeks about the injustice of Hamden police shooting Washington multiple times.
“What they need to understand is that this is not a Hamden, Connecticut problem,” Shareef said. “Or a New Haven problem. This is an American cultural problem. This isn’t just about Hamden, or New Haven, or wherever. They’re killing us everywhere. And the bullshit’s got to stop.
“I’m saying this as a black man. I’m tired of seeing our babies, our mothers, our women dying because they’re not protected by the police force or by the men in their community. So now this got to be taken to a whole nother level. Because if my kids can’t be safe, then ain’t nobody gonna be safe.”
Fair agreed. She said that these types of rallies, this type of outrage, shouldn’t happen in response just to one shooting, and it shouldn’t happen just in the streets. This level of outrage has to be maintained day in, day out, she said, in order for systemic change to happen. And it needs to be brought into places of power. Like the police headquarters itself.
Which is exactly what the crowd decided to do.
Led by Shareef and Fair, over 100 people flooded the atrium of the police department’s headquarters, demanding to talk with the chief or the highest ranking officer on duty.
After 20 minutes of shouting chanting and stilted conversation with officers between a thick pane of glass, Kicak came out to talk with the protesters.
But, besides meeting the protesters face to face, the Hamden deputy police chief shared little with the group.
“Obviously, one of our officers was involved in an unfortunate incident,” he said. “I cannot go into the details as to what transpired. An individual was unfortunately shot.”
“Stephanie Washington!” someone shouted from the crowd.
“I do not know the young lady,” he said. “The Connecticut state police are at this time conducting a thorough and independent investigation. I do not have the authority to give any specifics as to what transpired. If anybody’s looking for any specifics, you will have to turn to them.”
Fair pushed Kicek to put pressure on the state investigators to complete their review expeditiously, so that a hurting community can understand what exactly happened Tuesday morning.
“I will do everything that I can,” he said.
Back To The Scene
Hungry for answers, the protesters received little more news on what transpired early Tuesday when the rally moved at around 7 p.m. down to Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street, just outside of where the shooting had taken place roughly 13 hours before.
Acting New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes confirmed that New Haven police officers were not involved with Tuesday morning’s shooting.
“I want to commend the leadership of the Hamden Police Dept because they’re not hiding in an office,” Reyes said. “They’re here. They’re here to show face for what happened today. and that’s all we can ask of our leadership. Is that correct?”
“No!” members of the crowd shouted back.
By the time the crowd had quieted down, Reyes continued.
“Today we had a shooting in our streets,” he said. “There was an incident that happened in Hamden, and it played out, and it ended here. Out of respect to the investigation, I want to refrain from giving too many details.
“At the end of the day, I’m not here to convince you of anything other than what you may have seen in that video. But what I’m asking you to do, and I’m asking every member of this community, is to understand that we have an opportunity to shape the narrative here. And we have a responsibility to our young people in this community to go about justice in the right way. We’re going to make sure that this is a transparent investigation. We’re gonna make sure that people are held accountable if they did something that’s inconsistent with the expectations. That’s all we can promise you.”
Hamden Mayor Curt Leng had little more to share.
“I’m angry too,” the Hamden mayor said. “We’re all angry. And I can’t ask you to believe me that we’re gonna do the right thing. And i understand that. I ask one thing. I ask you to believe in the actions that are taken. One of the things that’s very difficult about being mayor, about being a police chief, about being a leader in some of the government entities is that when investigations happen, we’re not allowed to talk about things, because if we talk about them, we taint the investigation.”
Hamden Acting Chief Cappiello said the first thing he did upon hearing of the shooting was call the New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin and ask him to conduct a thorough, independent investigation of what had happened.
“Once that happens,” he said, “we lose control of the investigation.” And the body camera footage, the cop car footage, the officer’s equipment and all other potential evidence become the temporary property of the state attorney’s office.
“At this point in time,” he said, “I can just put the officer on administrative leave.” Which he did.
